Wiley Rein Files Supreme Court Amicus Brief for U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Washington, DC – On behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Wiley Rein filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of petitioners challenging a California requirement that certain nonprofits disclose their major donors to the state. The September 25 brief was filed in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra and Thomas More Law Center v. Becerra.

The brief argues that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit erred in upholding the California requirement by failing to subject it to the appropriate First Amendment scrutiny. Wiley Rein’s brief takes a strong stance in defense of strict First Amendment scrutiny, arguing:

The Ninth Circuit’s decision in this case compromised the protections for associational privacy that this Court has long deemed required by the First Amendment. The decision upheld the California Attorney General’s blanket, up-front, governmental demand for the individual identities and addresses of major donors to private nonprofit organizations, without requiring any showing that the demand was narrowly tailored to an important government interest.

Caleb P. Burns, partner in the firm’s Election Law & Government Ethics Practice, is Counsel of Record to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in this matter. The Wiley Rein team also includes partner Stephen J. Obermeier and associates Jeremy J. Broggi and Boyd Garriott.

To read the amicus brief, click here.