JCOPE Commissioners Again Rule Civil Liberties Group Must Disclose Donors
After a lengthy debate, a majority of the commissioners of the state’s lobbying and ethics watchdog panel again found on Tuesday that the New York Civil Liberties Union must disclose donors to its state lobbying efforts.
Several times the commissioners of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics have ruled that the NYCLU must disclose its donors, despite arguments from the free speech rights group that such disclosure could potentially lead to reprisals against people who fund the organization.
The group has received a number of threatening letters, but JCOPE has found that there has not been a “substantial likelihood” of harm to donors whose names are disclosed on the agency’s website in lobbying disclosures. . .