The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand an Alaska law aimed at reducing dark money in politics.
The law applies to donors who give more than $2,000 to fund political ads for or against a candidate. It requires that donors report their contribution within 24 hours. The law also beefed up disclaimers that say who paid for a political ad, dictating that they stay on screen for the entire length of a video ad, for instance.
A group of contributors challenged the law, saying it infringed on their freedom of speech. Lower courts rejected the claims. Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order saying it wouldn’t take the case, without giving a reason.
The disclosure and disclaimer requirements for political spending were part of the same ballot initiative Alaskans approved in 2020 when they adopted ranked choice voting. A measure to repeal ranked choice voting remains too close to call as the state ballot count continues. Even if the repeal passes, the dark-money law would remain in effect. The sponsors of the repeal measure did not try to overturn those requirements.
RELATED: Ranked choice repeal ballot measure now failing by just 45 votes after Tuesday results update
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
