(The Center Square) – Two watchdog groups are backing Kansas in federal court as the state defends its ban on foreign money in ballot measure campaigns.
Honest Elections Project and Americans for Public Trust filed a joint amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas urging the court to uphold House Bill 2106, according to a joint news release from the organizations.
The law, enacted in 2023, bans foreign nationals from funding efforts to support or oppose state ballot initiatives.
Democratic election attorney Marc Elias is challenging the law on behalf of Kansans for Constitutional Freedom (KCF). It’s the group that led the campaign against a proposed constitutional amendment restricting abortion in 2022. In court filings, KCF admits to using foreign money and argues that foreign nationals have a right to influence politics in Kansas.
KCF received nearly $1.6 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that was the group’s largest donor during the 2022 campaign. The Sixteen Thirty Fund has received more than $280 million from Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss in the past decade and spent over $130 million supporting liberal ballot initiatives across 26 states, according to Americans for Public Trust.
Kansas lawmakers passed the foreign funding ban in response to the group’s use of these funds.
“Marc Elias has tried to challenge a ban on the foreign funding of ballot issue campaigns in the past, lost, and I expect he will continue to lose,” said Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Election Project. “American elections should be free of foreign interference and states clearly have a right – and an obligation – to ban foreign nationals from influencing the democratic process. Noncitizens aren’t allowed to vote, sit on juries, or contribute to candidates running for office. Ballot issue campaigns should be no different.”
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, said Kansas is taking a necessary step to stop foreign interference in its elections.
“Kansans for Constitutional Freedom is a self-admitted foreign-funded group that absolutely should not be financing ballot measure campaigns,” she said. “Without this law, there is nothing stopping other foreign-funded groups – or foreign adversaries like Russia, China, and others – from exerting large-scale financial influence in Kansas. This court should uphold this commonsense law to stop foreign meddling and close this foreign influence loophole.”
The brief argues that the law does not violate constitutional rights and only applies to groups that choose to accept foreign donations.
It is Elias’ second attempt to block a state-level foreign funding ban. He also filed suit in Ohio last year. While a federal judge initially ruled in his favor, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed that decision and upheld the state’s law.
Federal law prevents foreign nationals from contributing to candidates and super PACs. However, it does not extend those restrictions to ballot issue campaigns. That gap in federal law has led nine states, including Kansas, to pass their own foreign funding bans.
Wyss has also given millions of dollars to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and NARAL, all of which have supported KCF. He was recently sued by a former employee over alleged sexual misconduct. Elias previously served as Wyss’s personal attorney.
No final decision has been made on this matter yet.
