--- title: Independence Institute v. Buescher - Wyoming Liberty Group description: Wyoming Liberty Group's brief challenged Colorado's donor-disclosure rules for ballot-measure campaigns and defended First Amendment associational privacy. canonical_url: https://wyliberty.org/independence-institute-v-buescher language: en-GB date: 2026-06-29T21:49:32Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://wyliberty.org/independence-institute-v-buescher. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 1422 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://wyliberty.org/independence-institute-v-buescher. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ## Independence Institute v. ### Buescher ## Independence Institute v. Buescher **Amici brief for certiorari in Independence Institute v. Buescher** *Benjamin Barr and Stephen Klein* **Filed**: [October 2, 2009](http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docketfiles/09-265.htm) (U.S. Supreme Court) **Issues**: 1. Do the First and Fourteenth Amendments forbid Colorado from imposing registration, administrative, and continuous reporting regulations on policy organizations that comment on state ballot measures but do not have the support or opposition of such measures as their central major purpose? 2\. Do Colorado’s disclosure requirements for donors to ballot measure campaigns in which there is no chance of *quid pro quo* corruption violate the right to engage in anonymous speech and association? **Summary**: This brief—which was joined by the [Cato Institute](http://www.cato.org/), [Center for Competitive Politics](http://www.campaignfreedom.org/), [Sam Adams Alliance](http://www.samadamsalliance.org/), [Montana Policy Institute](http://www.montanapolicy.org/) and [Goldwater Institute](http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/)—called for the Supreme Court to examine campaign finance disclosure requirements for political communications relating to ballot measures. Specifically, the Wyoming Liberty Group sought to emphasize the First Amendment’s protection of associational rights (that is, the right to join together with others in groups or organizations) and an important corollary: associational *privacy*. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that the state of Alabama could not force the NAACP to disclose its membership list. More recently, the Court ruled that one does not have to disclose his or her name and address when distributing flyers in a public place. The Court has allowed for specific protection of anonymity for certain political parties that have shown they are subject to repression. This brief argues that these targeted protections need to be formulated into a coherent First Amendment protection for all sorts of citizen groups, specifically in light of the fallout from the [Proposition 8](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123025779370234773.html) campaign in California. The First Amendment does not provide a right to have one’s words go unanswered, but it does protect from government facilitating the names and addresses of speakers so that opposing voices can find them while the government intrudes into their privacy. **Outcome**: The Supreme Court [denied certiorari](http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/111609zor.pdf). We hope that future cases, such as the pending case *ProtectMarriage v. Bowen*, have more success in prompting the Supreme Court to reconcile associational privacy with campaign finance disclosure. Click [here](https://wyliberty.org/images/PDF_Downloads/Brief-Independence-Institute.pdf) to read the brief. ![logo white 002](https://wyliberty.org/images/general_art/logo_white_002.png) **Wyoming Liberty Group** P.O. 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