John,

If your summer is going at all like my summer is, you may feel like you need a win.

Between the ongoing pandemic and the Trump administration’s anti-democratic attacks on the upcoming election, it would be easy to feel discouraged. But I’m writing to tell you that as much as these are challenging times, there are good reasons not to lose hope.

Just last week we got two huge wins in some of our most important lawsuits.

On President Trump’s first full day in the Oval Office in 2017, we sued him for his violations of the Constitution's Emoluments Clauses, which he violated with his ongoing ownership of his businesses. Last Monday, a federal appeals court in New York denied Trump’s request to rehear the case after a panel of judges ruled in CREW’s favor last September. At this point, if Trump wants to prevent the case from going forward, he will have to appeal to the Supreme Court. The message from the court is clear: the president is not above the Constitution.

While suing the president may seem like an uphill battle, in some ways the fight against dark money can be even more challenging because there is simply so much money and so many ways to use it to influence elections. Nevertheless, CREW keeps racking up wins on that front as well.

Four years ago, CREW sued the Federal Election Commission because their donor disclosure rules did not go far enough and did not comply with the law. Last Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling in CREW’s favor that the FEC’s inaction was unlawful and that donors to groups that make election advertisements must be revealed. CREW’s wins in this case are already making it harder for super PACs and wealthy donors to keep their spending secret. We know this is a big win because these groups would not be fighting so hard to keep their donors hidden if it wasn’t so important to them to fly under the radar.

CREW has never shied away from a fight for a more ethical government, no matter how big the problem, or how powerful the interests are that are opposing us. I hope this good news from CREW’s lawsuits restores some confidence in our democracy and gives you a reason to keep fighting for a better government, even in dark times.

Thank you for standing with us,

Donald Sherman
Deputy Director, CREW

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