Massachusetts Clean Elections Law
In 2002, the Massachusetts legislature declined to fund the clean elections law, a public financing measure passed by voters in 1998. Bonifaz and the NVRI sued Massachusetts on behalf of Warren Tolman, a candidate for governor who had qualified for public financing and was not receiving the money. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the legislature must fund a law passed by the voters that it has not repealed. When the legislature persisted in not releasing the necessary funds to pay Tolman and other candidates, Bonifaz went to court again, and secured a ruling allowing his coalition to force the sale of state property. The legislature repealed the clean elections law after the 2002 elections.
Read more about this topic: John Bonifaz
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“If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order.”
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