1. Supreme Court begins January sitting this week
2. Follow campaign finance news nationwide in our Disclosure Digest newsletter
3. North Carolina State Senator resigns to join state Utilities Commission

Supreme Court begins January sitting this week

The U.S. Supreme Court is back in session this week as it hears oral argument in eight cases during its January sitting. The Court will hear five cases this week and three next week.

The Court will hear nine cases in its February sitting, which runs from Feb. 24 to March 4. A date for argument has not yet been set for 15 cases.

Among the cases the Court will hear this week—on Jan. 14—is Kelly v. United States. You might remember the incident known as Bridgegate, where some New Jersey government employees reduced traffic lanes on a bridge into New York City to punish a mayor for not endorsing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) 2013 re-election bid. This case is a culmination of court battles surrounding that event. The question the Court will decide is whether a public official is guilty of fraud by advancing a public policy reason for an official decision that is not the subjective real reason for making the decision. 

The court has agreed to hear 67 cases so far during its 2019-2020 term and issued opinions last month in two of them. In the 2018-2019 term, SCOTUS considered 75 cases. It heard oral argument in 72 and decided three cases without argument. 

Click the link below to read more about the Supreme Court’s current term. We also invite you to subscribe to our newsletter on the federal judiciary—Bold Justice—which covers Supreme Court cases, judicial confirmations and important rulings from other federal courts.

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Follow campaign finance news nationwide in our Disclosure Digest newsletter  

The new year has begun, and that means new state legislative sessions. Twenty-one state legislatures are currently in regular session and another 25 states will be in session during 2020 but have not yet convened.

As legislatures nationwide return to work and lawmakers introduce new bills, Ballotpedia will resume tracking state-level legislation regarding fundraising, spending, and donor disclosure policies for nonprofits more closely. Starting today, we’ll publish The Disclosure Digest—our newsletter about campaign finance and donor disclosure policy—weekly through the end of June.

Under federal law, nonprofit organizations are generally not required to disclose information about their donors to the public. State laws, however, may require such disclosure. 

In The Disclosure Digest, we run down the latest developments surrounding nonprofit donor disclosure policy, including pertinent legislation, court challenges, and advocacy efforts.

Click here to instantly subscribe to The Disclosure Digest and receive the new edition in your email later today→

North Carolina State Senator resigns to join state Utilities Commission

North Carolina State Senator Floyd McKissick (D) resigned his seat Jan. 7 to accept an appointment to the North Carolina Utilities Commission. Gov. Roy Cooper (D) appointed McKissick on May 1, 2019. His nomination was approved by the state House 114-3 on July 8 and unanimously by the state Senate Oct. 31.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) is a seven-person executive board charged with regulating the state’s public utility system. This includes regulating electricity, telephones, natural gas, water, wastewater, water resale, household goods transportation, busses, brokers and ferryboats. The NCUC is also charged with ensuring the safety or natural gas pipelines and fixing the rates of public utilities. It is the oldest regulatory body in the state.

All 50 states have public service commissions responsible for the regulation of utilities. Most states' commissions have three seats, though some states have as many as seven seats. Public service commissioners are elected in 11 states and appointed in the other 39. Of those states that appoint public service commissioners, all but Virginia and South Carolina give the power of appointment to the governor. There are a total of 201 seats on public service commissions across the country.

Vacancies in the North Carolina state legislature are filled by an appointment from the governor, who makes a selection from a list of recommended candidates submitted by the political party committee of the previous officeholder. McKissick’s departure is one of multiple state legislative vacancies across the country effective at the end of the year. We’ll have some data about this later this week - stay tuned!  

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