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Climate change is making your allergies worse

The warm, inviting spring air coupled with vaccinations for Covid-19 are encouraging people to gather outside. But for allergy sufferers, that air is packing a massive wallop that could send them scrambling back indoors.
From <a href="https://wgme.com/news/local/dry-and-mild-weather-in-maine-leading-to-high-levels-of-pollen-this-week">Maine</a> to <a href="https://www.wsfa.com/2021/04/13/is-there-an-end-sight-this-brutal-pollen-season/">Alabama</a>, clouds of allergens like pollen are wafting over cities, leaving millions of people with watery eyes, headaches, and rashes. 2021 is shaping up to be yet another brutal year for allergies. Just like 2020, <a href="https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Allergy-Sufferers-Prepare-for-Unusually-Long-Season-Expert-Says-507872031.html">2019</a>, and <a href="https://www.sctimes.com/story/life/wellness/2018/09/16/allergy-season-tips-pollen-fall/1226697002/">2018</a> ...
The trend is real: Allergy risk is getting worse over time. The length and intensity of pollen seasons are growing, largely due to climate change. And as the planet continues to warm, more misery is in store.
Up to <a href="http://www.aafa.org/page/allergy-facts.aspx">50 million</a> Americans are estimated to have allergies, and as pollen counts increase, more people may become allergic.
“I think that what will happen is that more people will get sensitized and then they will present themselves earlier because of the higher pollen count, particularly with tree pollen,” said <a href="https://allergymedgroup.com/about/">Sunil Perera</a>, an allergist in Roseville, California, near Sacramento.
That in turn will become a greater burden on health and the economy, as even people with mild symptoms struggle with remaining active and productive. The cost of treating nasal allergies already tops <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21277528/">$3.4 billion</a> per year in the US. Asthma attacks induced by pollen lead to 20,000 emergency room visits a year in the US.
One complication this year, like last, is the Covid-19 pandemic. Many are wondering whether their suffering is being caused by the virus or pollen. There are some overlapping symptoms between Covid-19 and allergies, like a runny nose and a loss of smell, but allergies also produce some distinct signs, like itchy eyes and sneezing, according to the <a href="https://education.aaaai.org/resources-for-a-i-clinicians/covid-19">American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology</a>. The more unique symptoms to Covid-19 include fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
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<figcaption>Allergy symptoms can overlap with Covid-19, but there are some distinct signs.</figcaption>
<cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.aaaai.org/Aaaai/media/MediaLibrary/Images/Promos/Coronavirus-Symptoms.pdf" target="_blank">American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology</a></cite></figure>
However, many people with Covid-19 have no symptoms at all. And there’s no reason why someone couldn’t have Covid-19 and allergies at the same time.
In fact, doctors warn that severe allergies could make people more vulnerable to respiratory infections. “When allergic inflammation occurs in the respiratory tract, [infections] are easier,” Perera said. “We see concurrent allergies and infections when [patients] come see us.”
Face masks may provide allergy sufferers with some relief, although they leave eyes exposed. But as the planet continues to warm, allergy sufferers will have a harder time finding refuge. Grains of pollen range in <a href="http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/pollen/index2.htm">size</a> from 200 microns down to 10 microns, with smaller grains able to penetrate deeper into the lungs. Small pollen grains can even seep indoors. And researchers are finding out just how much our own insults to the environment are to blame.
Allergies are the result of the immune system overreacting to something that is otherwise benign. That can lead to annoying but mild symptoms like hives or itchy eyes. But it can also cause life-threatening complications like <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anaphylaxis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351468">anaphylaxis</a>, where blood pressure plummets and airways start swelling shut.
Pollen is one of the most common allergens. It’s produced as part of the reproductive cycle of plants. The timing of pollen production varies depending on the plant species, with trees peaking in the spring, grass over the summer, and ragweed in the fall.
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<figcaption>Different plants reach peak pollen production at different times of year.</figcaption>
<cite><a class="ql-link" href="http://jhuasthmaallergy.jhmi.edu/allergicreactions/pollen-chartmidatlantic.pdf" target="_blank">Johns Hopkins University, Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology</a></cite></figure>
There are two main ways that humans are changing pollen production. One mechanism is that humans are increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have risen from 280 parts per million in the 1800s to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/04/05/atmospheric-co2-concentration-record/">420 ppm today</a>.
“When CO2 goes up, plants tend to grow a little bigger,” said <a href="https://faculty.utah.edu/u6003057-WILLIAM_ANDEREGG/research/index.hml">William Anderegg</a>, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Utah. “They tend to put out more flowers as a fraction of their mass, and individual flowers tend to have actually more pollen on them.”
Plants that produce more pollen tend to produce more seeds. That also means more pollen-spewing plants in the next season.
The other mechanism is the warming induced by carbon dioxide. Since it traps heat, higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are causing the planet to heat up. This is leading to warmer winters and earlier springs, giving plants a head start on pollen production. “As spring heats up, all of these life cycle events, including pollen seasons, tend to shift earlier,” Anderegg said.
The combination of these two factors is leading to more pollen production and over a longer period of time.
<a href="https://www.vox.com/21452781/zogg-fire-glass-wildfire-california-climate-change-hurricanes-attribution-2020-debate">Attribution</a> is the growing climate science field that seeks to figure out not just how the climate is changing but also to what extent human activity is specifically to blame — and what amount of change might have occurred otherwise, without human meddling. Scientists use observations and models to figure out how phenomena ranging from extreme flooding to wildfires would be different if humans weren’t spewing gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“Think of it as looking at a baseball player before and after they start using steroids,” said <a href="https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/people/our-faculty/lhz2103">Lewis Ziska</a>, an associate professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
Researchers have now begun to attribute changes in allergens to human activity. In a study published in February in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/7/e2013284118">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</a>, Ziska, Anderegg, and their colleagues calculated that human impacts on the climate account for roughly half of the increase in the length of pollen seasons in North America. Human-caused climate change also accounts for 8 percent of the observed increases in pollen concentrations.
“There is a very distinct climate signal that is appearing that we can directly associate with these changes in pollen, both with respect to load — how much pollen — but also with respect to the entire exposure time,” Ziska said.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1618664420_9693_553148" data-cdata='{"asset_id":16016697,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/i9flFIgeK6kEoince4ApKsocdSQ=/0x0:4625x3048/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/71BGU6-4F7Lm8fqM2Z5Puc6_4rg=/0x0:4625x3048/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QJ3StjlwkJOz0TgvRbaVOanG8XE=/0x0:4625x3048/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xk_mv2dtCKbJ6p2WXWTR8FLDD5o=/0x0:4625x3048/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RC0eA3yfScMUbyuctSKfj5RRvB0=/0x0:4625x3048/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Hl7nF-4k0a9q171LmH8q-OVlsNg=/0x0:4625x3048/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/n0hIzUfnZQVuAOyX_4FrQA4fGgY=/0x0:4625x3048/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XGPc5fBS8s781awe8cEdAiHr0R8=/0x0:4625x3048/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/34UWdpjcxBtTW2mNy3vij_RufvA=/0x0:4625x3048/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="A massive cloud of pollen wafts from the trees in a coniferous forest around the Niedersonthofener Lake in Germany." data-upload-width="4625" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lwj9YSbLmg6V4XIKmpgrkjXb7JI=/0x0:4625x3048/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IZ0uqllO_68U63up1gQf33uPvPY=/0x0:4625x3048/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vjkIGhgSZHc7VUB25wDwed8jBPs=/0x0:4625x3048/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HlX7yVgSe5Iqka0KNXnGKZJVvaM=/0x0:4625x3048/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_MM8bS8xsOm6YlaxN0yRH4uxZTo=/0x0:4625x3048/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-kJWCMDg5QSN0n3WRSK4fsLwJNk=/0x0:4625x3048/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/10BygFDufiWIv1mWODPEWdhrinE=/0x0:4625x3048/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4esl62mz0Vw4FR3zlNvpbQ3s7ys=/0x0:4625x3048/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ViiDWiWA8MC8sAW3P8FOPBOFIsI=/0x0:4625x3048/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mqwNyGcT4A8Vhs83R1A2_0_R118=/0x0:4625x3048/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4625x3048):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/16016697/GettyImages_977060358.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Humans are changing the climate, which is making pollen seasons longer and more intense.</figcaption>
<cite>Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/Picture Alliance via Getty Images</cite></figure>
These effects are already visible, and as humanity continues burning fossil fuels, these impacts are poised to grow. Some estimates show that pollen counts of all varieties will <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1059973047/">double by 2040</a> in some parts of the country, depending on what pathway the world takes on greenhouse gas emissions.
The northern latitudes will likely end up sneezing the most since they are the fastest warming parts of the planet. And pollen isn’t the only allergen of concern. As permafrost melts in places like Alaska, moisture is seeping into homes, creating an inviting habitat for mold. That mold can then produce spores that trigger allergies. Stinging insects are another concern in the far north. Warmer winters mean more insects survive into the spring, increasing their numbers. People who may not have realized they are allergic to stings can end up finding out the hard way that they are vulnerable.
<a href="http://www.allergyalaska.com/about-us/our-providers/jeffrey-g-demain-md">Jeffrey Demain</a>, director of the Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Center of Alaska, told Vox in 2018 that he observed that the northernmost part of Alaska saw a 626 percent increase in insect bites and stings between 2004 and 2006 compared with the period between 1999 and 2001.
What’s emerging from the haze is that the health burden from allergies of all sorts is poised to grow, and there will be little relief for allergy sufferers on the horizon. But it also highlights how climate change impacts are already here, and they’re going to get worse. “This really underscores the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and tackling climate change as quickly as we can,” Anderegg said.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22383707/allergies-2021-pollen-allergy-covid-19-climate-change-asthma">https://www.vox.com/22383707/allergies-2021-pollen-allergy-covid-19-climate-change-asthma</a>

vox Climate change is making your allergies worse

The warm, inviting spring air coupled with vaccinations for Covid-19 are encouraging people to gather outside. But for allergy sufferers, that air is packing a massive wallop that could send them scrambling back indoors. From Maine to Alabama, clouds…

The Supreme Court hears a case next week that could make Citizens United even worse

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The Supreme Court will hear a major case on April 26 that could fundamentally alter the Court’s approach to laws requiring political organizations to disclose their donors — a change that could make it much easier for big spenders to hide the ways they seek to influence policy and elections.
That case is <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/americans-for-prosperity-foundation-v-becerra/">Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Rodriquez</a>. But to fully understand it, it’s important to keep in mind the Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZO.html">Citizens United v. FEC</a> (2010).
Citizens United is best known for its anti-canonical holding that corporations may spend unlimited money to influence elections. While five of the justices who heard Citizens United voted to dismantle much of the nation’s campaign finance laws, eight justices also voted that the government has fairly broad authority to require advocacy groups to disclose major funders of their political activity.
Disclosure requirements should be upheld, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the Court, so long as there is “a ‘substantial relation’ between the disclosure requirement and a ‘sufficiently important’ governmental interest.”
A lot has changed since Citizens United tucked this pro-disclosure ruling into its broader ruling against campaign finance limits, however. Four of the eight justices who supported disclosure rules have since left the Court, and three of them were replaced by judges who are significantly more conservative than the person they replaced.
Which brings us to Americans for Prosperity Foundation. The plaintiffs in the case — which include a conservative advocacy group <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/26/koch-brothers-americans-for-prosperity-rightwing-political-group">closely associated with the billionaire Koch brothers</a>, and the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative law firm that claims it was formed to promote “<a href="https://www.thomasmore.org/about-the-thomas-more-law-center/">America’s Judeo-Christian heritage</a>” — seek to undercut pro-disclosure decisions such as Citizens United. And, with six Republican appointees on the Supreme Court, they have a very good chance of prevailing.
The specific issue in Americans for Prosperity is fairly far afield of the foundational questions about money in politics that animated Citizens United. The plaintiffs challenge a California regulation that requires charities that wish to raise tax-deductible funds in California to disclose their largest contributors to the state attorney general’s office. State regulations require the attorney general to keep this information confidential from the public, but the attorney general’s office may use it to investigate allegations of fraud by nonprofits.
The Americans for Prosperity plaintiffs claim that this disclosure regulation is unconstitutional, and they rely largely on doctrines created to prevent civil rights organizations from having to disclose their donors to Jim Crow government officials in the 1950s and ’60s.
There are difficult questions underlying Americans for Prosperity. If you are inclined to be unsympathetic to a Koch-aligned group that wants to keep its donors secret, imagine a very similar case where Texas required Planned Parenthood to disclose its donors to the state attorney general’s office. Would you have confidence that no one in that office would leak the names of those donors to Tucker Carlson?
But the Court has also spent the past 60 years striking a careful balance between the public’s interest in requiring charities and advocacy groups to disclose where they get their money, and the groups’ interest in making sure that their donors are not harassed, intimidated, or attacked by people who loathe a particular group and what it stands for.
Americans for Prosperity gives the Court’s very conservative majority an opportunity to rework this balance. And those justices could allow political groups to operate with far more secrecy, allowing wealthy donors to shape American politics in the shadows.
In the mid-1950s, an Alabama court ordered the NAACP, which was then the preeminent organization fighting segregation in the Jim Crow South, to turn over a full list of its members to the state attorney general — and then imposed a $100,000 fine on the NAACP if it did not comply.
Had the NAACP complied, it could have placed those members in grave danger. State officials could have turned over the list of members to the Ku Klux Klan. Or they may have disclosed them to racist employers who could have fired the NAACP’s members and blacklisted them from obtaining future employment.
The Alabama court’s order, in other words, was a fairly transparent effort to shut down the NAACP’s operations in Alabama, either by terrorizing the organization’s members or by imposing crippling fines on the NAACP. The $100,000 fine imposed by the state court was roughly the equivalent of a <a href="https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/">$1 million fine in today’s dollars</a>.
Ultimately, however, this scheme did not succeed. In <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=4515566352758049665&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr">NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson</a> (1958), a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that Alabama could not force the NAACP to disclose its members, given the obvious danger to those members if their names were disclosed.
“We think that the production order, in the respects here drawn in question, must be regarded as entailing the likelihood of a substantial restraint upon the exercise by petitioner’s members of their right to freedom of association,” Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote for his Court. He added that the NAACP had made “an uncontroverted showing” that “revelation of the identity of its rank-and-file members has exposed these members to economic reprisal, loss of employment, threat of physical coercion, and other manifestations of public hostility.”
NAACP was an extreme case, and the plaintiffs in Americans for Prosperity do not allege anything that even vaguely resembles the kind of abuse and intimidation that NAACP members faced in the Jim Crow South. As a lower court that upheld California’s disclosure law <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/16-55727/16-55727-2018-09-11.html">explained</a>, an executive with the Americans for Prosperity Foundation “described two individuals who, she believed, stopped supporting the Foundation in light of actual or feared retaliation by the IRS,” and another donor who “did business with the Government” said that he and his associates “did not feel like they could take on the risk of continuing to give to us.”
Similarly, the Thomas More Law Center “introduced a letter from a contributor who chose to make a $25 contribution anonymously out of fear that ISIS would break into the Law Center’s office, obtain a list of contributors and target them.”
Unlike the NAACP in the 1950s, in other words, the Americans for Prosperity plaintiffs largely raise speculative fears that, by disclosing their major donors to one government agency, that information may somehow — in violation of California state regulations — wind up in the hands of another agency, which might target those donors. (Or, in the case of the law center, that the donor information might wind up being discovered by a terrorist organization located on the other side of the globe, which will then target American donors to the law center.)
That said, the plaintiffs do have some basis to fear that some of their donor information might accidentally be disclosed to the public. An expert witness hired by Americans for Prosperity was able to hack the state’s website and uncover confidential donor information — although this security hole has since been plugged — and clerical workers in the California attorney general’s office once accidentally made a small fraction of the office’s confidential records public.
The plaintiffs fear that, had their donor information become widely available to the public through a similar error, then those donors might be harassed or their businesses might be boycotted.
The core question in Americans for Prosperity is whether this fear that an inadvertent disclosure might happen and that such a disclosure might lead to consequences for donors is sufficient reason to invoke constitutional protections intended to shield organizations like the NAACP in the Jim Crow era.
Under current precedents, the Supreme Court uses two sorting mechanisms to help it identify which disclosure laws should be struck down.
The first is a balancing test <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZO.html">described in Citizens United</a>. Under that test, a disclosure law should be upheld if there is “a ‘substantial relation’ between the disclosure requirement and a ‘sufficiently important’ governmental interest.” Thus, Alabama’s attempt to obtain the NAACP’s members list was invalid, because the only “interest” that Alabama sought to advance when it sought this list was undermining the NAACP.
By contrast, a federal appeals court upheld California’s disclosure rule because, by obtaining information about major donors to nonprofit organizations, the state advanced its important interest in determining “whether a charity is <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/16-55727/16-55727-2018-09-11.html">actually engaged in a charitable purpose</a>, or is instead violating California law by engaging in self-dealing, improper loans, or other unfair business practices.”
As California explains in its brief to the Supreme Court, the state’s disclosure rule “helps state regulators detect whether a charity is misusing charitable assets, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-251/172982/20210325141442657_19%20251%2019%20255%20Brief%20on%20the%20Merits.pdf">such as by diverting funds for a donor’s personal enrichment</a>.” A businessman might, for example, make a tax-deductible “donation” to a nonprofit organization, which immediately turns around and hires that businessman’s company as a “consultant” — thus allowing the businessman to take a fraudulent tax deduction without actually contributing anything to charity.
The second mechanism that the Court uses to sort through challenges to disclosure laws is that it ordinarily requires such challenges to be brought on an “as applied” basis, a mechanism that allows courts to pay special attention to the specific facts of an individual case.
Courts distinguish between “facial” challenges, which allege that a law is invalid in all circumstances and must cease to operate altogether, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/8/21051739/abortion-june-medical-gee-third-party-standing-supreme-court-roe-wade">“as applied” challenges</a>, which allege that the law is only unconstitutional when applied to a particular plaintiff. Thus, if a plaintiff prevails in a facial challenge, the challenged law can no longer be enforced against anyone. But if a plaintiff prevails in an as-applied challenge, the government may still be able to enforce the challenged law against other parties.
As-applied challenges are the preferred mechanism to challenge a disclosure law because such a challenge typically hinges on the particular impact of that law on a particular plaintiff. In Americans for Prosperity, for example, the plaintiffs allege that they engage in unpopular political work that makes their donors unusually vulnerable to harassment and intimidation. But the same cannot be said about most nonprofits — it is highly unlikely, for example, that donors to the March of Dimes would be harassed if their donations became public knowledge.
Thus, when a party challenges a particular disclosure law, courts will often ask whether that individual party should be exempted from the law, rather than striking down the law on its face. In Citizens United, for example, the Court explained that a facial challenge to certain campaign finance disclosure laws was inappropriate, but “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZO.html">as-applied challenges would be available</a> if a group could show a ‘reasonable probability’ that disclosure of its contributors’ names ‘will subject them to threats, harassment, or reprisals from either Government officials or private parties.’”
Nevertheless, the plaintiffs in Americans for Prosperity bring a facial challenge to California’s disclosure law. They also claim that the balancing test described in Citizens United should be abandoned in favor of something much more skeptical of disclosure laws.
Though there are some important differences between the argument in the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-251/169507/20210222113359763_19-251ts.pdf">Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s brief</a> and the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-251/169531/20210222131516000_19-255%20Brief%20for%20Petitioner.pdf">Thomas More Law Center’s brief</a>, both argue that Citizens United’s relatively permissive rule governing disclosure laws should be, in the words of the former brief, “confined to election regulation.” Thus, while the government may be able to require advocacy groups to disclose their donors when those groups attempt to influence an election, disclosure laws enacted in any other context would be treated as more suspect.
Most disclosure laws, the plaintiffs claim, must be “narrowly tailored” to serve the purpose of that law. Thus, they argue, the California law should fall because the state could use less intrusive methods to investigate fraudulent nonprofits, such as only subpoenaing records from charities that are under investigation.
The state, for its part, argues that relying on subpoenas is not enough, in part because subpoenas tip off a fraudulent organization that it is under investigation. But there’s also a much more fundamental problem with the plaintiffs’ attempts to draw a line between election-related disclosure laws and laws that do not touch on elections — the border between “issue” advocacy and election-related advocacy is notoriously porous.
Before Citizens United opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate sending on elections, for example, lawmakers struggled to draw a sensible line between “issue” ads — ads intended to inform voters about a policy-related matter — and “<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/527s/electioneering.php">electioneering communications</a>,” which sought to influence an election. If an advocacy group runs an ad saying “tell Congressman Smith that he was wrong to vote for Obamacare,” for example, is that ad merely educating voters about a policy matter, or does it seek to undermine Smith’s reelection bid? What if the ad also praises Smith’s opponent for opposing Obamacare? What if the ad runs a week before the election?
The plaintiffs’ proposed rule could very easily allow advocacy groups to evade disclosure rules that apply to election ads and similar communications with voters, so long as those communications superficially appear to focus on “issues.”
Ultimately, cases like Americans for Prosperity come down to a question of values. Should donors who wish to spend gobs of money influencing public policy be allowed to do so anonymously? And if we think that the answer to this question typically should be no, at what point should we give special protections to donors who face harassment, boycotts, or worse?
In <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/09-559.ZO.html">Doe v. Reed</a> (2010), a case about whether the public should be allowed to learn who signed a petition seeking to call a referendum on a state law, Justice Antonin Scalia offered a <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/09-559.ZC4.html">bracing answer to these questions</a>:
<blockquote>
Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed. For my part, I do not look forward to a society which, thanks to the Supreme Court, campaigns anonymously . . . and even exercises the direct democracy of initiative and referendum hidden from public scrutiny and protected from the accountability of criticism. This does not resemble the Home of the Brave.
</blockquote>
“Harsh criticism, short of unlawful action,” Scalia added, “is a price our people have traditionally been willing to pay for self-governance.”
There do have to be some limits on the government’s power to require advocacy groups to disclose their donors — NAACP presents a particularly stark example of why. And if either of the plaintiffs in Americans for Prosperity has evidence that their donors face a serious risk of illegal reprisals, then they should be allowed to bring an as-applied challenge to disclosure laws that endanger those donors.
But the Americans for Prosperity plaintiffs ask for much more. They ask for a fundamental shift in how the Court approaches disclosure laws. And, while they concede that there may still be campaign disclosure laws in the elections context, it’s far from clear that the Court will draw a sensible line between issue-related advocacy and election advocacy.
The views that Scalia expressed in Doe represent a confident conservatism — a conservatism that believes it can win the hearts and minds of the nation through open debate. But that brand of conservatism has been replaced by something far more insecure, and far more fearful of a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/2/22309176/fox-news-dr-seuss-cancel-culture-fox-news-biden">frequently overblown “cancel culture”</a> that is ready to pounce on anyone brazen enough to express a conservative viewpoint.
Americans for Prosperity will be an early sign of just how far this new, far more insecure conservatism has penetrated into the Supreme Court.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/17/22384256/supreme-court-citizens-united-disclosure-americans-for-prosperity-rodriquez-thomas-more">https://www.vox.com/2021/4/17/22384256/supreme-court-citizens-united-disclosure-americans-for-prosperity-rodriquez-thomas-more</a>

vox The Supreme Court hears a case next week that could make Citizens United even worse

The Supreme Court will hear a major case on April 26 that could fundamentally alter the Court’s approach to laws requiring political organizations to disclose their donors — a change that could make it much easier for big spenders to hide the ways t…

Fauci: ‘Very Frustrating’ to Get Questioned about Freedoms without Mentioning COVID Deaths

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On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said “it’s very frustrating” when people question him about restrictions and freedoms without mentioning the number of people who have died from coronavirus and that while he wants to get his life back, “I, also put, as a higher priority, the health and the safety and the lives of the American public.”
Alex Jones breaks down the fight for liberty in the face of medical tyranny as Rep. Jim Jordan is told to ‘shut your mouth’ by Mad Maxine Waters after questioning Fauci about the end of the lockdown.
<a href="https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/04/16/fauci-very-frustrating-to-get-questioned-about-freedoms-without-mentioning-covid-deaths-health-and-safety-higher-priority-for-me/">Read more</a>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/fauci-very-frustrating-to-get-questioned-about-freedoms-without-mentioning-covid-deaths">https://www.infowars.com/posts/fauci-very-frustrating-to-get-questioned-about-freedoms-without-mentioning-covid-deaths</a>

news Fauci: ‘Very Frustrating’ to Get Questioned about Freedoms without Mentioning COVID Deaths

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said “it’s very frustrating” when people question him about restrictions and freedoms without mentioning the number of people who have died from coro…

WATCH: BLM Activist Asks When People ‘Ready to Get Blood on Their Hands?’

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An activist speaking at Black Lives Matter Plaza asked how long before “people are really ready to get blood on their hands” to make change happen. His call to action came during a “Jail Killer Cops” rally in Washington, DC, on Friday evening.
<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter">
<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper" readability="8.384126984127">
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“How much longer can we protest and march in the streets before we are ready, really ready, to get blood on their hands because one of these days, it’s going to have to come to that.”
-BLM activist
Meanwhile, POTUS wants to take our defensive firearms.<a href="https://t.co/7FcqhUYBDa">https://t.co/7FcqhUYBDa</a>
— Dean (@quixxdraw) <a href="https://twitter.com/quixxdraw/status/1383372770340343815?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2021</a></blockquote>
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“Voting is not gonna bring us this (change),” Rahim B., a 21-year-old activist, said during a “Jail Killer Cops” rally held Friday night in the nation’s capital. “We voted in the new president, Joe Biden, but I told folks straight up — Joe Biden ain’t gonna do nothing for us because Joe Biden was in office as the vice-president when the Black Lives Matter movement started and ain’t nothing changed.”
“We’ve been protesting for a really long time,” Rahim continued. “How much longer can we protest and march in the streets before we are ready, really ready, to get blood on their hands because one of these days, it’s going to have to come to that.”
Earlier in his speech, Rahim said he was ready to “dedicate my life to change.”
<a href="https://www.breitbart.com/law-and-order/2021/04/16/watch-blm-activist-asks-when-people-ready-to-get-blood-on-their-hands/">Read more</a>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/watch-blm-activist-asks-when-people-ready-to-get-blood-on-their-hands">https://www.infowars.com/posts/watch-blm-activist-asks-when-people-ready-to-get-blood-on-their-hands</a>

news WATCH: BLM Activist Asks When People ‘Ready to Get Blood on Their Hands?’

An activist speaking at Black Lives Matter Plaza asked how long before “people are really ready to get blood on their hands” to make change happen. His call to action came during a “Jail Killer Cops” rally in Washington, DC, on Friday evening. “How …

Protesters smash windows & set fires in Oakland as anger over recent police shootings spreads across US (VIDEOS)

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Demonstrators in Oakland, California vandalized buildings and lit fires during a march in response to two fatal police shootings that have occurred over the past week. Similar unrest has been seen in other US cities.
Hundreds of protesters took to Oakland’s streets on Friday night following the killings of two black people at the hands of the police, 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago and 20-year-old Daunte Wright near Minneapolis, local media reported. 
Some local businesses had boarded up their windows as a precautionary measure. The city saw riots and looting last year following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. 
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Their fears were soon validated. Black-clad demonstrators were spotted smashing the windows of a Target. Local media reported that “several” other businesses were also damaged. 
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There were also numerous reports of arson. Videos posted to social media purportedly show fires started by the demonstrators. One blaze was lit inside a car dealership. A car parked outside was also targeted, with flames coming out of its broken windows. A large fire was also ignited outside the city’s California Bank and Trust building. A local ABC affiliate insisted however that the “majority” of protesters were peaceful. 
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Stew Peters of https://ift.tt/3drRF5m talks to Felicia Konold https://ift.tt/3sqm73X who was raided by the FBI for being at the DC Capitol protest on Jan. 6th.
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Police in riot gear responded to the unrest as they cleared the streets and ordered demonstrators to disperse. It’s unclear if there have been any arrests.
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The chaos coincided with similar protests that occurred in Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington as well as Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, the Minneapolis suburb where Wright was killed. 
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/protesters-smash-windows-set-fires-in-oakland-as-anger-over-recent-police-shootings-spreads-across-us-videos">https://www.infowars.com/posts/protesters-smash-windows-set-fires-in-oakland-as-anger-over-recent-police-shootings-spreads-across-us-videos</a>

news Protesters smash windows & set fires in Oakland as anger over recent police shootings spreads across US (VIDEOS)

Demonstrators in Oakland, California vandalized buildings and lit fires during a march in response to two fatal police shootings that have occurred over the past week. Similar unrest has been seen in other US cities. Hundreds of protesters took to O…

VIDEO: Marxist BLM Founder Says Her Mansion Collection Is ‘Direct Support To Black People’

<h4>Black Lives Matter co-founder, lesbian, and self-described “trained Marxist” Patrisse Cullors defended her $3.2 million mansion-buying spree that was exposed by the New York Post last week, claiming “The way I live my life is in direct support of black people and that includes my black family members.”</h4>
The New York Post first<a href="https://nypost.com/2021/04/10/inside-blm-co-founder-patrisse-khan-cullors-real-estate-buying-binge/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> reported</a> on Cullor’s extravagant tastes in real estate on April 10, noting her spending spree which consisted of four high-end properties costing a combined $3.2 million.
Cullors has received widespread bipartisan criticism for her perceived hypocrisy, even as left-wing tech platform Facebook <a href="https://nationalfile.com/breaking-facebook-blocks-new-york-post-story-about-blm-founder-spending-millions-on-luxury-homes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">struggles to ban and erase</a> the New York Post story from being shared.
“So a critique from the left that would say, if you are a trained Marxist, if we’re talking about a certain kind of radical politick, that extravagant homes of any sort, or multiple properties of any sort is itself contradictory to the ideology you hold, and so it’s not about having money per se… but that it’s about there being a potential contradiction between your expressed politics and your lived practice,” Cullors was told during a recent interview.
“Sure, and I think that is a critique that is, um, wanting,” Cullors responded. “And I say that because, um, the, the [sic] way that I live my life is in direct support to black people, including my black family members, uh, first and foremost.”
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Cullors continued, “And, uh, for so many black folks who are able to invest, um, in themselves and in their community, they choose to invest in their family, and that’s what I have chosen to do, um, I have a child, I have a brother that has severe mental illness that I take care of, um, I support my mother, um, and I support many other family members of mine and so I see, um, uh, my money as not my own, I see it as, um, my family’s.”
Black Lives Matter riots, which resulted in massive property damage and loss of life in 2020, are expected to pick up in intensity throughout 2021.
<div class="VcsJS4wU"><a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/essential-vitamin-combo-pack?ims=vvfpn&utm_campaign=EssentialVitaminComboCountdown&utm_source=Infowars+Hero&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=EssentialVitaminComboCountdownHERO" target="_blank"><img src="https://api.directus.libertycdn.com/uploads/_/originals/2DaysLeft-EVCP-hero-385.jpg" /></a></div>
Chris Sky of https://backtowork.bz/ joins The Alex Jones Show to break down how the authoritarian clamp down from the left will unite humanity as one race fighting for freedom.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-marxist-blm-founder-says-her-mansion-collection-is-direct-support-to-black-people">https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-marxist-blm-founder-says-her-mansion-collection-is-direct-support-to-black-people</a>

news VIDEO: Marxist BLM Founder Says Her Mansion Collection Is ‘Direct Support To Black People’

Black Lives Matter co-founder, lesbian, and self-described “trained Marxist” Patrisse Cullors defended her $3.2 million mansion-buying spree that was exposed by the New York Post last week, claiming “The way I live my life is in direct support of bla…