Supreme Court declines to block Delaware law requiring groups that run election ads to name their donors
The justices on Oct. 1 denied an emergency request from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and Americans for Prosperity, leaving the Delaware Elections Disclosure Act in force for the Nov. 3 general election while their suit goes on.
Washington. The Supreme Court on Oct. 1 refused to block Delaware's Elections Disclosure Act, the 2012 law that requires groups paying for election advertising in the state to report the names and addresses of their donors. The one-sentence order, which notes no dissent, denied an emergency application from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and Americans for Prosperity, a 501(c)(4).
The application, No. 26A349, was filed Sept. 10 with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who referred it to the full Court. The groups asked the justices to bar enforcement against them for the 2026 election while they petition for review.
What the law requires
The law covers anyone who spends more than $500 on third-party advertisements, including electioneering communications: ads that refer to a clearly identified candidate and run within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election. Such a spender must file a report listing everyone who gave it more than $100 during the election period. As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit described the law, disclosure is not limited to donors who earmarked gifts for political ads, and because of how election periods are defined, it can reach gifts made up to four years before an election.
The groups said that if they ran ads in Delaware they would have to disclose donors nationwide going back to January 2023, and that they would rather stay silent. Ross Connolly, the foundation's Northeast regional manager, told Spotlight Delaware in July that the group was not working in Delaware because of the law.
Delaware, represented by its Department of Justice and lawyers from Campaign Legal Center, answered that a group can fund its Delaware ads through a political action committee or an unincorporated association and report only that entity's donors, as most third-party advertisers in recent Delaware elections have done.
How the case got here
The groups sued on April 17, arguing that the Supreme Court's 2021 ruling in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta had undercut a 2015 Third Circuit decision upholding the law. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Hall denied a preliminary injunction on June 8. A Third Circuit panel affirmed on Aug. 31, holding that the balance of equities favored keeping a law that had stood for more than a decade and noting that the groups had built almost no factual record.
“Two months out from an election, caution is a virtue.”
The Supreme Court's order decides only the request for an injunction. The groups' challenge to the law itself has not been decided.
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