New York State’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics — or J-COPE — said that the New York Civil Liberties Union has to share the identities of its major donors.
A 2011 law requires certain lobbying groups to tell J-COPE the names of donors who provide more than $5,000 to their cause.
The NYCLU wants an exemption from that requirement. The group said in a statement that it was also denied the exemption by J-COPE last year, but it won the exemption when it appealed the denial in court. They said, “We are confident this exemption request will be upheld again.”
The group said that historically, government demands for membership information from controversial groups have been used to intimidate those groups and shut them down.
J-COPE members said the group failed to show that it was at risk.