Citizens United is back to its old tricks, but they weren’t as lucky this time.

The group asked for protections and privileges typically reserved for journalists as it promoted its latest politically charged film. But yesterday, a circuit court ruled that while the film itself wasn’t subject to campaign finance law, ads for it were in fact campaign ads, which means they had to disclose who was paying for them.

That requirement, that explicit electioneering ads have to disclose their sources, was left untouched by 2010’s Citizens United ruling. Citizens United wanted to get rid of that here, but Colorado Common Cause and our coalition partners argued for the rights of Coloradans to know who is paying the big bucks to influence the election.  

The Court agreed with us. Coloradans have demanded transparency over and over again, overwhelmingly passing reforms at the ballot box whenever we’ve had a chance.

And it’s easy to see why. We want to know who is trying to influence our votes. When corporations, special interests, and wealthy individuals can spend big on our elections from the shadows, our democracy suffers.