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CfA's August 23, 2024 Newsletter

With your support, Campaign for Accountability is working to expose corruption and hold the powerful accountable.

This Week's Updates:

How Missouri Tax Credits Help Anti-Abortion Activists Harass Patients in Other States
In June 2022, Missouri outlawed abortion under a “trigger law” that had been passed before the Dobbs decision, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Two years later, state lawmakers voted against amending the law to include exceptions for rape. Now, a special state tax credit is helping the Missouri-based nonprofit Coalition Life raise money to fund activities in states like Illinois, where the procedure is still legal. Job descriptions created by Coalition Life reveal that the organization pays part-time workers to offer “sidewalk counselling” to women seeking abortions. Workers are paid $17 an hour to stand outside of reproductive health clinics; their duties also include “maintain[ing] statistics, stories and video footage,” though the job description does not disclose what statistics these workers are tasked with collecting.

While real reproductive health providers are held to standards of safety and privacy, anti-abortion unregulated pregnancy clinics (UPCs) are largely free to collect information about the women they interact with. In April, CfA sent complaints to the attorneys general of Idaho, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington alleging UPCs in their states had potentially violated consumer protection laws by telling clients their personal health information was protected under federal law.

How Big Tech Helps “Skin Gambling” Casinos Target Young Gamers
In May of 2024, Ontario police arrested a man named Aiden Pleterski, who was accused of stealing tens of millions of dollars from investors as part of a crypto scheme. After declaring bankruptcy, Pleterski attempted to illegally transfer $430,000 USD in video game assets; namely, he bought and sold “skins” for the video game Counter-Strike. These virtual collectibles allow players to change the appearance of their characters or weapons, and can fetch incredibly high prices on the secondary market. In June, a single Counter-Strike skin sold for over $1 million, and entire websites are devoted to tracking the values of different assets. Now, reporting from Barron’s reveals that unlicensed virtual casinos are capitalizing on this subculture, allowing players to use skins as currency to gamble. The casinos market themselves to players using advertisements on platforms like Instagram, where young gamers are likely to see them. Together, the gambling websites identified by Barron’s gave Google over $28 million for search advertising – despite the fact that Google does not allow advertisements for unlicensed, online casinos.

Skin gambling websites also placed flashy advertisements on Meta platforms, according to the company’s own Ad Library. These ads appeared to violate Meta’s policies, but Tech Transparency Project Director Katie Paul told Barron’s that Meta had already failed to detect test advertisements promoting gambling to children, and approved them for circulation in less than 60 seconds. While Big Tech companies run ads for these illicit casinos, a growing body of evidence suggests that skin gambling is associated with gambling-related harms, and could serve as a gateway for more serious addiction.

Supreme Court Allows Arizona to Tighten its Voting Requirements
Yesterday, the Supreme Court allowed Arizona to uphold parts of a restrictive voter ID law, which will make it more difficult for residents to cast their ballots in state and local elections. The lawsuit was brought by the Republican National Convention and led by a small law firm called Consovoy McCarthy – the same firm that helped end affirmative action and strike down the Biden Administration’s student loan forgiveness program. The firm also has a close relationship with Leonard Leo, the former Vice President of the Federalist Society who served as President Trump’s judicial kingmaker and now sits at the center of a powerful fundraising network. If the suit had been fully successful, over 40,000 Arizonans would have been barred from participating in federal elections, which are just months away. Instead, the Court only allowed parts of the law to go forward, marking a partial victory for opponents of voting access.

This week, an investigation by Lever News found that Consovoy McCarthy is also representing cases in Michigan and Nevada which could restrict voting access in both states. In 2023, one of the firm’s partners was revealed to have Venmoed a close aide of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; the purpose or size of the transaction was never confirmed, but the payment was made alongside several others that were listed as "Christmas party," "Thomas Christmas Party, and "CT Christmas Party.”

What We're Reading
Federal judge in Texas overturns FTC ban on noncompete agreements
In narrow ruling, Arkansas Supreme Court keeps abortion off the ballot
US imposes sanctions on 400 more targets for aiding Russia's war effort

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Be on the lookout for more updates about our work in the upcoming weeks. Thanks again for signing up to be a part of CfA!

Sincerely,

Michelle Kuppersmith
Executive Director, Campaign for Accountability

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