Federal Appeals Court Upholds Ruling That Colorado Right To Life Exempted From State Campaign Finance Amendment

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that the Colorado Right to Life Committee is exempted from a state constitutional amendment that requires some advocacy groups to file financial disclosure papers, the AP/Frisco Summit Daily News reports (AP/Frisco Summit Daily News, 8/21). Amendment 27, which was approved by Colorado voters in November 2002, bans direct corporate campaign contributions, limits contributions from political action committees to candidates and political parties, and restricts how much an individual or company can contribute to a candidate.

CRLC and the Colorado Citizens for Responsible Government in August 2003 filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the amendment. The groups claimed that the amendment is unconstitutional because it regulates issue advocacy (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/4/03). Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman (R) argued that CRLC had to register as a political action committee and was subject to financial disclosure requirements.

The appellate court in its ruling said that CRLC qualified as an exception because it was not formed for business activities, did not have shareholders and received less than 1% of its annual gross income from business corporations. The court added that CRLC did not qualify because its main purpose is not to promote the defeat or election of candidates but rather to promote respect for human life. A spokesperson for Coffman said the secretary could not comment because he had not seen the ruling (AP/Frisco Summit Daily News, 8/21).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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