Is It Unconstitutional To Compel Extractive Industry Firms To Publish What They Pay?by Matthew Stephenson |
“Publish What You Pay”
(PWYP) is the slogan of the international civil society movement to
promote transparency and accountability in the extractive industry
sector (oil, gas, minerals, etc.). The idea is to get firms to disclose
what they pay to governments, and to get governments to disclose what
they receive, in connection with extraction projects. Viewing voluntary
programs like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as
insufficient, the PWYP movement has been pressing for mandatory
disclosure requirements. But would such requirements violate the right
to free speech protected by the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution?
That
question may seem absurd. Requiring truthful disclosures by commercial
firms of payments to foreign governments may or may not be an effective
anticorruption measure, but is it even plausible that such requirements
would violate the constitutional guarantee of free speech? I think the
answer should be no. But alas, as is often the case, it’s not clear that
my view is shared by the federal judges who are likely to decide this
issue. Indeed, there are worrisome signs that the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals may endorse an absurdly expansive conception of the First Amendment that would block any effective PWYP mandate. Read more of this posthttp://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2014/05/01/is-it-unconstitutional-to-compel-extractive-industry-firms-to-publish-what-they-pay/#more-1302
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