[caseysoftware]

> "Private actors working hard to censor political adversaries is not necessarily illegal, for what it's worth."

"Private actors" is doing quite a bit of work here.

For individuals working in their personal capacity, you're mostly correct. The rules change for certain jobs.

BUT that's not the situation here. In this case, we have the SPLC - a registered 501(c)(3) - that appears to have worked to censor political adversaries. And the law specifically bars that, making it illegal.

> Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

Ref: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organiz...

Unless Patrick is wrong. The end of his post asks for comment from the relevant organizations so they could easily address this one.

[tptacek]

You're trying to axiomatically derive election law here. Every word in the statute matters. It is very probably perfectly lawful for SPLC to work to censor ideologies, even up to the point where those ideologies are coterminous with party definitions. The whole edifice of Citizens United is based on a sharp divide between advocacy and campaign finance; the argument you're putting forward is disfavored.

(That's not to say SPLC couldn't have fucked up and crossed the line, just that the general description given upthread of what they were doing did not in fact describe a violation of law).

[caseysoftware]

Upthread summarizes Patrick accurately but maybe too succinctly, so to lay it out specifically:

In the post, Patrick demonstrates that the SPLC cofounded and led Change the Terms (CTT) then goes on to demonstrate CTT targeted a specific political candidate's fundraising. The first is fine, the second is illegal.

Check out the section titled "July 2021: The CTT coalition attempts non-partisan interdiction of Trump PAC fundraising" for specific quotes and even a picture of a mobile billboard they funded.

That is neither "ideologies" nor "party definitions"

[tptacek]

I've read Patrick's post very carefully and am not disputing it, just the comment upthread, and then only as a nudge.