MUST READ: Maine Should Be Able to Protect Self-Government From Foreign Influence

A brand new op-ed within the Portland Press Herald by Free Speech For Individuals’s Authorized Director Courtney Hostetler and Counsel Amira Mattar makes the case that Maine voters have the precise to ban international government-influenced firms from spending cash to attempt to sway Maine’s elections.

They write:

The poll measure handed in Maine successfully places an finish to this pathway of affect by international government-owned firms, one thing the state is constitutionally permitted to do. Maine has a compelling state curiosity in stopping these firms from spending cash to affect elections with the intention to defend and protect Maine’s democratic self-government.

Maine’s curiosity in preserving its democratic self-government warrants the respect that courts have traditionally afforded it. The U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the First Circuit ought to overturn the district court docket, and affirm Maine’s potential to guard its elections from international authorities affect, even the place that affect passes via U.S.-based firms.

In June, Free Speech For Individuals filed an amicus temporary supporting the state of Maine’s enchantment of a district court docket choice that enjoined a regulation limiting international authorities affect in state and native elections. Regardless of being handed by a historic margin of voters inside the state, the District Courtroom of Maine, on the behest of a small group of company pursuits, briefly blocked the regulation in February 2024 primarily based on the inaccurate premise that the regulation is inconsistent with Residents United. The state is now searching for vacatur of that call earlier than the First Circuit Courtroom of Appeals.

Learn the complete op-ed right here.

Study extra concerning the amicus temporary right here.

Study extra concerning the case right here. 

Study extra about legislative efforts to protect American self-government right here.