Kansas group fights campaign donor law it sees as a response to its success defending abortion

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A group that successfully defeated an anti-abortion ballot measure in Kansas has filed a federal lawsuit against a new state law aimed at curbing foreign influence in elections, saying it violates free speech rights and would keep the group from waging future campaigns.

Kansans for Constitutional Freedom argues that August 2022 statewide vote against a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would have allowed the Legislature to greatly restrict or ban abortion. The group led the “no” campaign, and its largest single donor was the Sixteen Thirty Fund, tied to Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire who lives in Wyoming and finances liberal causes.

The Kansas group filed its lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Kansas.

“Kansas has adopted a series of impermissibly restrictive, overbroad and vague restrictions on issue-advocacy speech that will unconstitutionally impede public debates about some of the most important policy issues of our time,” the lawsuit said.

The law will take effect less than a year after Ohio moved to block foreign money in its elections. Kansas lawmakers heard committee testimony earlier this year from Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, along with conservative groups, and they mentioned Wyss by name as an example of why Kansas should enact its own law.

Two groups and three individuals filed to suit to challenge Ohio’s law almost immediately, but in October, a federal appeals court allowed Ohio to enforce it ahead of a trial of that lawsuit.

Federal law bars foreign nationals from contributing to campaigns or political committees. But the new Kansas law will bar groups campaigning for or against proposed amendments to the state constitution from accepting contributions “directly or indirectly” from foreign nationals. The groups also will have to certify that no named donors received more than $100,000 from a foreign national during the previous four years, and groups violating the law can be barred from electioneering for four years.

Kansans for Constitutional Freedom said it wants to raise money for a campaign in 2026 against a proposal from Republicans to amend the state constitution to end the governor’s appointment of state Supreme Court justices and have them elected instead. The group sees the measure as attacking the courts’ independence.

The group raised almost $11 million for its effort to defeat the anti-abortion ballot question in 2022, and nearly $1.5 million came from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, campaign finance reports show.

The new Kansas law passed the Republican-controlled Legislature with more than the two-thirds majority required to override a veto. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said the measure “goes too far,” but let it become law without her signature.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with state ethics commission members, noted the law’s bipartisan support.

“Republicans and Democrats agree that foreign corporations and foreign citizens must not be allowed to influence the outcome when Kansas constitutional amendments are placed before voters,” Kobach said in a statement Monday. “It is a core principle of self-government.”

In allowing Ohio to enforce its law, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said concerns about foreign influence in elections “date back to the Founding,” citing first President George Washington’s Farewell Address.

“And Ohioans and their representatives have a compelling interest in regulating such influence,” the appeals court majority said.

But the Kansas law’s restrictions fall on advocacy groups in prohibiting them from accepting federal funds. Also, groups must avoid donations even from U.S. citizens if they’ve received enough foreign funds — restricting their free speech rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well, the lawsuit argues.

“There is no reason why a donor should have to provide detailed and confidential information about its own funding sources,” the lawsuit said.