On July 19, 2016, CfA released a new report, Google’s Silicon Tower, revealing how academics and experts funded by Google have played a major role at academic and government conferences, debating some of the company’s core issues. Nearly all of the Google-funded participants failed to disclose their financial ties to Google, now a subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc.
On July 15, 2016, CfA Executive Director Anne Weismann issued a statement in response to the Department of Defense’s refusal to investigate Secretary Ashton Carter for misusing his private email account.
On July 14, 2016, CfA released a new report, Documenting Discrimination, uncovering how national right wing religious groups – working through smaller local groups – are spearheading the movement to legalize discrimination against LGBT individuals through Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) legislation.
On July 7, 2016, a bipartisan coalition of Members of Congress and 2016 congressional candidates filed a complaint before the Federal Election Commission seeking to end super PAC spending in US elections.
On July 7, 2016, CfA joined a coalition of 18 organizations, led by OpenTheGovernment.org, in opposing the FBI's proposal to exempt its biometrics database - the Next Generation Identification (NGI) system - from nearly all key provisions of the Privacy Act. The coalition believes that the FBI's system needs stronger privacy and transparency protections than the FBI's current proposal incorporates.
On July 6, 2016, CfA sent a letter to Liberty Counsel, a religious-right group representing Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, seeking the release of documents responsive to its open records request.
On July 6, 2016, in a letter to the chairs of the Utah Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands and the director and legislative general counsel of the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, CfA called for a full accounting of the nearly one million dollars the commission has spent to date to develop a lawsuit to compel the federal government to transfer national public lands to the state.
On June 8, 2016, CfA filed a lawsuit to compel the Department of Justice to comply with the law and release opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel.
On May 25, 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI and the SEC are investigating Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) for his lucrative stock trades of real estate investment giant CBL Associates Properties, a real estate company based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
On May 9, 2016, CfA called on Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt to investigate former Johnson County Election Commissioner Brian Newby for flagrantly violating Kansas criminal law by submitting false expenses, misusing public funds, and conspiring to cover up his conduct. Mr. Newby held his Kansas position for ten years, departing in November 2015 to serve as the executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.