Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on June 12.
Photo:
Meg Kinnard/Associated Press
The Supreme Court last year blocked the California Attorney General from requiring charities to disclose their donors, and now New York AG Letitia James is providing a reminder of why AGs can’t be trusted to guard this confidential information.
Politico last weekend published a story about former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley’s 501(c)4 nonprofit “Stand For America” raising money from prominent GOP donors. Stand For America engages in issue advocacy on many issues, including foreign affairs and state policies. Many of its donors have given to other potential GOP presidential contenders.
The story made waves because it included the names of the nonprofit’s donors and their contributions in 2019, the year it launched. Politico says it obtained donor details from the progressive outfit Documented, which describes itself as an “investigative watchdog and journalism project committed to holding the powerful interests that undermine our democracy accountable.” Politico says Stand for America’s donor tax filing bears a stamp from the NY AG’s Charities Bureau, which indicates that was the source.
The Supreme Court last year in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta ruled that the California AG’s blanket demand that all charities disclose donor information was unconstitutional because it burdened their First Amendment right of association. The Court said the AG’s demand could chill donors who fear their identities could be publicly identified, which may be what California really wanted.
New York state, in an amicus brief joined by other Democratic states in the California case, claimed it “maintains a rigorous multistep procedure to prevent public disclosure” and its “confidentiality protections have proven successful.” The Documented leak betrays this claim. If the details of Ms. Haley’s nonprofit donors aren’t safe, then no charity’s contributors are.
At least going forward, state AGs can’t require that nonprofits disclose donor information, but some like New York still have donor names and numbers on file. It’s hard to know why Ms. Haley’s nonprofit donors were leaked. Maybe because the group has criticized such New York policies as the no-bail law.
The Haley leak joins the disclosure by the ProPublica website of tax-return information of rich Americans, many of them GOP donors. The press seems interested mainly in donations to conservative causes or GOP candidates, rather than to progressives. All the more reason to be grateful for the Supreme Court’s new attention to donor privacy and free speech.
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