This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, September 8, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

California wants donor information from the Center for Competitive Politics,

a nonprofit dedicated to ending restrictions on campaign activity that

conflict with the First Amendment. Problem is, the Supreme Court's already dealt with

this kind of issue before, but they will again. The Cato Institute has filed an amicus brief in the case.

Iilia Shapiro, senior fellow in constitutional studies, comments.

What was the question before the Supreme Court and what did they decide in the 1958 case N-ADouble A-C-P v Alabama?

Well, Alabama at the time was very interested in finding out who was funding the NAACP.

They were just curious.

And the NAACP said, well, look, I'm sure we're all curious about lots of things, but we have very real fear that the

state is going to intimidate and harass and maybe worse.

Our donors, our members, and unless they have a very good reason, unless they

are some criminal investigation or something, these are not records that they are automatically

entitled to.

That the First Amendment protects the right to associate anonymously.

Again, unless the state has some very good reason to investigate.

And the court decided what?

This court agreed with the NAACP.

And it was an overwhelming decision.

That's right.

I can't remember whether it was unanimous, but it wasn't a 5-4 decision.

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