The RNLA recently announced two initiatives to honor its Founding Chair Bob Horn: re-naming the Chairman's Award in his honor to the Robert J. Horn Chairman's Award and establishing the Bob Horn Fund for Law Students to encourage law student participation in the RNLA:
The Robert J. Horn Chairman’s Award is presented by the RNLA Chair annually at the National
Election Law Seminar and recognizes individuals for extraordinary dedication to the RNLA. It is given
to individuals whose contributions have significantly furthered the RNLA mission – advancing
professionalism, open, fair and honest elections, career opportunity, and Republican ideals – and
made a noteworthy and positive impact for the Republican Party and the United States of America. . . .
The Bob Horn Fund for Law Students was established through a generous donation from political.law,
a leading political law firm founded by longtime friend and Life Member of the RNLA, Dan Backer. It
will provide financial assistance to law students who wish to attend the RNLA’s annual National Policy
Conference and National Election Law Seminar and assist in the establishment of law student
chapters in key states throughout the country.
Bob Horn has had a long and distinguished legal career and service to the Republican Party, and his vision for an organization of Republican lawyers led to the establishment of the RNLA over 30 years ago. Current and former RNLA chairs praised him:
Current RNLA Chair John Ryder said of Mr. Horn: “RNLA wouldn’t exist without Bob Horn. He
provided the inspiration, guidance and leadership to get us started and keep us going. He is the very
model of a gentlemen and a lawyer.”
Immediate past RNLA Chair and first female RNLA Chair Kimberly Reed noted: “Bob Horn is to be
applauded for his vision in founding the RNLA, which now is a remarkable organization of 6,000
lawyers across the United States. As Ronald Reagan said: ‘The greatest leader is not necessarily the
one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.’
Because of Bob’s leadership, RNLA lawyers have come together as a force to advance
professionalism, open, fair, and honest elections, career opportunity, and Republican ideals.”
Past RNLA Chair Richard Wiley agreed: “Renaming the Chairman’s Award in Bob Horn’s name is
very appropriate. He really is the father of RNLA and has contributed so much of his time, energy and
considerable talents over many years to our Association. He very much deserves this honor.”
Thank you to Bob Horn for his many years of service to the Republican Party and this country and his leadership of the RNLA.
RNLA Advisory Council member Dan Backer cautioned against further regulation of political speech on the Internet in The Hill. He noted that FEC Democrats are using the allegations of Russian interference in last year's election to call for regulatory changes, but paid political communication on the Internet is already regulated by the FEC:
Broadening Internet regulations is a bureaucrat’s solution in search of a problem. As outlined in the Federal Register, the FEC already requires a disclaimer for any “public communication” that is “placed for a fee on another person’s website.” This includes paid express advocacy — any paid communications “advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate." Whenever an individual, corporation, labor union, or political committee “pays a fee to place a banner, video, or pop-up advertisement” on another’s website, they are engaging in “public communication” that requires a disclaimer.
But an individual's ability to speak and disseminate his or her message for free on the Internet has made it into a bastion of free speech that amplifies individual voices, and the FEC should not destroy it through regulation:
This consideration alone has compelled the FEC to allow the “vast majority of Internet communications” to “remain free from campaign finance regulation.” And our public debates have been better off for it.
For good reason: Everyone can watch television or listen to the radio, but only those with money can use these mediums to communicate. The shift from receiving information to conveying information was a quantum leap, and the Internet enabled that. Today, we’re all essentially media entities, since we can all disseminate our ideas to the general public. This is a powerfully democratizing force. The FEC’s rulemaking would turn the clock back to the 20th century.
The Internet must be left largely unregulated to preserve it as a convenient, inexpensive, and easily accessible tool for the robust exercise of free speech. The Internet’s unregulated nature is, at least in part, its charm. Even the FEC has recognized as much, describing the Internet as “a bastion of free political speech, where any individual has access to almost limitless political expression with minimal cost.”
We thank the Republican FEC commissioners and free speech advocates like Mr. Backer for fighting against the FEC Democrats' and the "reform" community's harmful urge to regulate core political speech.
