James Bopp

James Bopp Jr.. is an American conservative lawyer. He has repeatedly been named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States by the "National Law Journal", and is most known for his work associated with election laws and campaign finance.
Bopp served as Indiana's Republican National Committeeman on the Republican National Committee, and was the RNC's Vice Chairman from 2008 to 2012.
Early life.
Bopp is a native of Terre Haute, Indiana, and holds a bachelor's degree from Indiana University and a J.D. degree from the University of Florida College of Law.
Legal career.
He has been the general counsel for National Right to Life since 1978, the James Madison Center for Free Speech since 1997, and as the special counsel for Focus on the Family since 2004. Bopp was the editor of "Restoring the Right to Life: The Human Life Amendment".
A study conducted in 2014 showed that Bopp was one of a comparatively small number of lawyers most likely to have their cases heard by the Supreme Court.
Bopp represented a group of plaintiffs, including Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Republicans Overseas, and current and former U.S. citizens living in foreign countries, in a legal challenge to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) filed in 2015. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, "Crawford v. U.S. Department of Treasury", alleged that a number of provisions of the act unconstitutionally violate privacy rights of U.S. citizens, while burdening both private individuals and the financial institutions that they patronize. In April 2016, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Rose of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio dismissed the suit for lack of standing.
Republican Party membership and activism.
Bopp is known for his staunch social conservatism, and his past and present clients are "a who's who of social conservatism," including the Traditional Values Coalition, the Home School Legal Defense Association, Concerned Women for America, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform. 
Bopp is particularly known for his opposition to all forms of limits on money in politics and his role as counsel for groups seeking to strike down campaign-finance limitations.
He became Indiana's Republican National Committeeman on the Republican National Committee in 2006, and became the RNC's Vice Chairman in 2008. His tenure on the RNC ended in 2012 when he was defeated for another term by John Hammond at the state Republican convention. Bopp said after the convention that he was defeated because he supported Richard Mourdock over incumbent Richard Lugar for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2012.
In 2009, Bopp was the lead sponsor of an RNC resolution that initially called on the Democratic Party to change its name to "Democratic Socialist Party". A compromise resolution was passed instead, condemning President Barack Obama and the then-Democratic congressional majority for "pushing America toward socialism and more government control."
During a 2010 RNC meeting, he was the chief sponsor of a resolution covering financial support of candidates. The "purity test" resolution (titled "Proposed RNC Resolution on Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates") names ten public policy positions that are important to the RNC and stipulated that public officials and candidates who disagree on three or more of the ten positions would be ineligible for financial support or endorsement from the RNC. The resolution was defeated.
Bopp clashed with Michael Steele during Steele's term as chairman of the Republican National Committee; after Bopp criticized Steele, Steele called Bopp an "idiot."
During the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, Bopp initially stayed neutral in the race because he was part of a committee charged with setting the number of Republican primary debates. However, three attorneys in Bopp's office left to work for Herman Cain. In February 2012, Bopp endorsed Mitt Romney.
Marriage.
Bopp has repeatedly represented Indiana on the Republican Party's platform committee, including in 2016. On the committee, Bopp pushed for a socially conservative platform, advocating platform language stating that children "deserve a married mom and dad" and referring to "natural marriage" as between a man and a woman. Bopp opposed efforts by billionaire Republican Paul E. Singer to add a statement to the party platform committing the party "to respect for all families," a signal of openness to LGBT Americans; Bopp called the proposed language "redundant and superfluous." Bopp also opposed efforts by delegate Rachel Hoff (the first openly gay member of a Republican platform committee) to include a reference in the platform to the 2016 attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando; Bopp stated that including such language (which was ultimately voted down) would be "identity politics."
Bopp opposed an effort by some delegates to replace the 60-page platform that the committee had adopted with a simplified two-page "statement of principles" that excluded any mention of contentious issues, such as same-sex marriage. Bopp write in opposition to the alternative proposal that: "Obviously, the adoption of this statement of principles would be a major defeat for those of us that want the Republican Party to promote traditional marriage since the minority report wipes out our current platform language that supports traditional marriage."
Voting Rights.
During the 2020 election, Bopp represented Republicans in lawsuits to hinder voting rights. Bopp claimed, without evidence, that proactively mailing ballots to registered voters would lead to voter fraud.
Notable cases.
In "McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission", Bopp successfully represented "McCutcheon". The Supreme Court struck down section 441 of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which imposed a limit on contributions an individual could make over a two-year period to national party and federal candidate committees, is unconstitutional.
In 2011 in "Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus", Bopp successfully defended the Susan B. Anthony List against a defamation lawsuit by Steve Driehaus, a former Democratic congressman who claimed that the SBA List had made false statements regarding taxpayer funding of abortion in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The court ruled "We do not want the government deciding what is political truth — for fear that the government might persecute those who criticize it. Instead, in a democracy, the voters should decide."
In "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission", Bopp represented Citizens United, drafting the complaint and handling the early stages of the litigation. Bopp did not argue the case in the Supreme Court, having been replaced by Ted Olson.
In "Wisconsin Judicial Commission v. Gableman" (2010), Bopp successfully represented Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in a case alleging he broke the Wisconsin Judicial Code of Conduct during his successful run for the state supreme court. The case was presented before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and resulted in a 3-3 deadlock decision.
In "ProtectMarriage.com v. Bowen", Bopp represented ProtectMarriage.com in a lawsuit challenging the finance limit required for reporting campaign donations and the open way in which information on such donations is shared in California. This lawsuit was filed after the identities of people supporting California Proposition 8 were revealed as a result of disclosure laws.
In "Kurita v. Tennessee Democratic Party" (2008), Bopp represented former State Senator Rosalind Kurita, a Democrat, in her suit against the Tennessee Democratic Party for removing her as the Democratic nominee in her State Senate district after she had won the primary.
Other cases in which Bopp was counsel for a party or parties are: