The U.S. Supreme Court is letting states impose licensing and disclosure requirements on professional consultants who help nonprofit organizations raise money, according to the Associated Press.
The justices yesterday rejected a challenge to such a Utah law by American Target Advertising, a Virginia firm run by political direct-mail pioneer Richard Viguerie.
Lawyers for ATA argued that the state law violates free-speech rights and wrongly interferes with interstate commerce.
More than half the states impose similar requirements on fund-raising consultants, the justices were told.
ATA agreed in 1996 to provide “political and related consulting services” for Judicial Watch, an ideologically conservative nonprofit group that has filed numerous lawsuits against the Clinton administration. The contract specified that ATA itself would do no fund raising for Judicial Watch.
Judicial Watch’s Larry Klayman promotes his group’s lawsuits through fundraising letters, TV appearances, newsletters that helped it raise almost $12.5 million in 1998.
When Judicial Watch applied for a fundraising license in Utah in 1997, it was told by state authorities that it would not qualify for a license until ATA registered as well.
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