Group criticizing California Gov. Davis doesn't have to list backers
By The Associated Press
12.12.02
SAN FRANCISCO — A group that trashed Gov. Gray Davis on the airwaves last year doesn't have to register as a political committee or disclose its financial backers, the California Supreme Court said yesterday.
Without comment, the court's seven justices unanimously declined to review a San Francisco-based appeals court's September decision, which ruled against a lawsuit brought by Davis.
The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that a Washington, D.C.-based taxpayer group that ran television advertisements last year attacking Davis was not required to identify its financial backers and register as a political committee under the California Political Reform Act.
That decision overturned a county judge who ruled the act required American Taxpayers Alliance to reveal its contributors and expenses for the first six months of 2001.
But the appeals court noted that the commercials, which criticized Davis' handling of the energy crisis, were protected speech immune to the Political Reform Act's requirements. In weighing First Amendment rights of speech, the appeals court ruled that the act did not apply because the ads never clearly urged television viewers to vote for or against Davis.
The court wrote that the disclosure rules under the act apply only when there is express language to vote for or against a candidate — rules that courts have interpreted as not infringing First Amendment rights of speech.
The case is Davis v. American Taxpayers Association, S111156.