Grassroots Lobbying Laws Shut Out Ordinary Citizens from Politics

If the First Amendment protects anything, it protects the right of all Americans to speak to one another about politics without first having to register with the government. Unfortunately, ever-increasing layers of red tape and regulation are strangling the political speech and participation of more Americans while offering little or no benefit to the public.

One of the most pernicious attacks on the basic First Amendment rights to speak, associate and petition the government are so-called grassroots lobbying laws. (For an overview of these laws and what makes them so bad, watch this brief video: http://ij.org/ 3368.) But what bureaucrats and campaign finance reformers call “grassroots lobbying” is nothing more than one of the most basic acts of self-governance: citizens discussing issues of public importance among themselves.

As many as 36 states impose heavy burdens on grassroots political activism–burdens that discourage citizens from even bothering to participate in the political process.

For example, in Washington state, if you get together with a couple of friends and create an informal group to encourage others to contact their legislators and oppose more taxes, the government forces you to register and report the name, address, business and occupation of each of the group’s organizers, as well as the names and addresses of anyone with whom the group is working to spread its message. The state also demands to know the names and addresses of each person who contributes as little as $25 to your efforts. After the government collects this information, it makes your personal information and political activities available to anyone with a computer and access to the Internet.

Spending $500 in one month or $1,000 in three months–a couple of trips to Kinko’s to print flyers or hosting one community barbeque–will trigger the registration and reporting requirements of the law.

Put simply: A citizen who spends even relatively minor amounts of money communicating with fellow citizens must register with, and provide information to, the government regardless of whether elected officials are ever reached by the efforts.

In Washington, failure to register can lead to an investigation, significant penalties (including treble damages, the costs of the investigation and the government’s attorney’s fees), and a revocation of the ability to engage in any political activity that might qualify as “grassroots lobbying.”

Other states back up their regulations with criminal penalties. In New York, for example, the maximum criminal penalty for violating the grassroots lobbying law is $5,000 and four years in jail–the same maximum penalty as for arson or rioting. In Alabama, the maximum penalty is $30,000 and 20 years in jail–equivalent to the maximum penalty for kidnapping under state law.

The effect of laws like Washington’s is that many grassroots organizations simply forego speaking because the burdens of disclosure are so high and the costs of incorrectly reporting so steep. Average citizens are effectively shut out of the political process. This is unacceptable under the First Amendment, which unreservedly protects political speech.

It does not look like this ominous threat to free speech will recede anytime soon–instead, it appears to be on the rise.

In 2007, the U.S. Senate considered adding a grassroots lobbying registration requirement to an existing federal lobbyist disclosure law. The provision was supported by campaign finance “reformers,” who promoted it as a means to “increase transparency and provide a more accurate record of paid lobbying actions in Congress.”

A number of groups, however, successfully persuaded Congress that such a measure would be unconstitutional, and the Senate dropped the provision from the final bill.

But now, with the rise of the Tea Party movement as well as strong grassroots efforts both for and against President Obama’s health care reforms, there is a new push among the political elite and their campaign finance reform allies to regulate grassroots lobbying at the federal level.

The real irony of these so-called “lobbying” laws is that our nation’s history is replete with examples of anonymous grassroots speech and activism challenging the status quo and urging political change, beginning with the Federalist Papers. Disclosure laws like Washington’s could have stopped many initially unpopular but vitally important movements from ever starting.

Grassroots lobbying laws are nothing more than the government’s attempt to monitor, collect and disseminate information about the political activities of private citizens–something the government has no business doing in America.