Tort reform groups evade campaign finance laws

The American Tort Reform Association and the American Justice Partnership, a wing of the National Association of Manufacturers, pumped more than $700,000 into Illinois judicial elections last year. But oops! The erstwhile nonprofit groups forgot to disclose where they got the cash, according to a new story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Apparently the groups were still operating under the old rules, which allowed big corporations to hide their donations to judges by giving money to nonprofit groups, which then made the donations.

But Illinois lawmakers changed the rules after the slugfest in 2004 between Gordon Maag and Lloyd Kaminer for a seat on the state supreme court. That race was the mostly costly in the nation, eating up $9 million. Now, nonprofits that make campaign donations have to also disclose their funding sources. According to the Post-Dispatch, the Justice Partnership intends to maybe disclose its funders, but ATRA, whose main spokespeople, Victor Schwartz and Sherman "Tiger" Joyce, are nearly always on hand for a snarky comment about lawsuits and lawyers, apparently couldn't be found to answer the reporter's questions. I hope the Post-Dispatch follows this story to see whether the groups ever do the paperwork. ATRA has long tried to downplay the fact that a big chunk of its money comes from tobacco companies. Their financial disclosure forms ought to be mighty interesting!