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Today, 86 religious and secular groups urged President Donald Trump and members of Congress to preserve the Johnson Amendment to keep partisan politics out of 501(c)(3) organizations. The letter emphasized that for more than 60 years the tax code provision has protected the integrity and autonomy of religious and charitable sectors and safeguarded the boundary separating church and state.

On the eve of the Senate Commerce Committee’s first Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Oversight Hearing of 2017, Common Cause and 170 allied public interest organizations sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune and Ranking Member Bill Nelson calling for the protection of the free and open internet. The letter urges these leaders to support and continue to enforce the 2015 Open Internet Order and to oppose legislative and regulatory actions that would threaten the strong net neutrality rules already in place.

Common Cause and the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint today with the Federal Election Commission alleging Donald Trump’s campaign committee violated federal election law by illegally accepting campaign contributions after Election Day and falsely reporting those contributions for “debt retirement,” even though no debt existed. These false reports could have the effect of illegally increasing the amount Trump could accept from contributors for his 2020 reelection campaign.

Common Cause demanded the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and that his successor name a special prosecutor to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. Common Cause delivered a letter calling for his resignation during a protest outside the Department of Justice.

If President Trump does not have the courage to call for a Special Prosecutor to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election then Congress must mandate it.

The Supreme Court today, in Bethune-Hill v Virginia State Board of Elections, remanded the case back to the federal district court to determine whether legislators, in drawing lines for 11 districts shortly after the 2010 Census, used race as a factor to dilute the voting power of Black voters in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.