Law Commons^™

Public Financing's Last Breaths, Kellen Clemons

Legislation and Policy Brief

After this peculiar and unique election cycle, the public financing laws will have to be redeveloped in order to have any bearing on future elections. Without some change to the rules, candidates will continue to opt out and use the Internet and grassroots initiatives to out-raise one another, to the possible disadvantage of the goals of the public finance system. In essence, this election cycle has seen politics destroy the current public financing system. Through the advisory opinions of the Federal Election Commission and the decisions of the major candidates to opt out of public financing, the role of the …

The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct And Political Campaign Activities, Lauren Gilius

Legislation and Policy Brief

This article will examine whether the American Bar Association’s (“ABA”) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (“Model Rules”) should apply to lawyers in situations where a lawyer-candidate or a lawyer involved in a disingenuous political campaign activity, particularly when the lawyer was not convicted on criminal charges. Though the American Bar Association said that the Model Rules apply to dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation by lawyers, even when acting in a non-professional capacity, the support for applying the Rules in this context is lacking.

This article will first briefly discuss the development of applying the Model Rules to the non-professional conduct, …