ACLU hit with foreign money complaint as new election law faces major test

FIRST ON FOX: Americans for Public Trust, a conservative watchdog organization, filed a complaint with the Missouri Attorney General asking the state to investigate whether the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and Stop the Ban violated Missouri’s foreign-influence ballot-measure law, Fox News Digital has learned.

The Switzerland-based Oak Foundation gave the ACLU Foundation a $2 million unrestricted grant to be spent over the course of two years beginning in 2025, according to a financial disclosure. Then, in early 2026, campaign finance records show that the ACLU Foundation donated $500,000 to Stop the Ban, a political committee working to oppose a ballot measure in Missouri that would ban most abortions in the state. 

Missouri is part of a slate of GOP-led states that, in 2025, passed laws aimed at preventing foreign funds from making their way into the political process. The legislative effort was inspired by reporting that money linked to Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss had made its way to a major Democratic-aligned nonprofit that was spending large amounts of money to sway state ballot referendums.

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“The ACLU is aware of and compliant with this Missouri campaign finance law,” a spokesman for the organization told Fox News Digital.

A federal court wrote in 2025 that a Kansas campaign finance law, which is similar to the foreign influence law in Missouri, prevents organizations funded by foreign nationals from donating to domestic nonprofits that themselves donate to political committees, even though the paper trail between foreign nationals and domestic nonprofits is “one step removed.” 

The Oak Foundation is primarily funded by the wealth of British billionaire Alan Parker. His family retains seats on its board of trustees.

Americans for Public Trust (APT) argued that the ACLU Foundation donating to Stop the Ban shortly after receiving funds from the Oak Foundation constitutes a violation of Missouri’s Foreign Influence in Ballot Measures Act, which became law in August 2025. 

“The ACLU Foundation has become a bastion of foreign money, unceremoniously opening its coffers to millions in Swiss-based funding, and, subsequently, to an unknowable degree of influence that comes along with it,” the group wrote in its complaint. “At a minimum, the ACLU Foundation and Stop the Ban demonstrate reckless disregard for the newly enacted requirements of the Act, and, at worst, they demonstrate willful evasion of a law designed to keep foreign money out of Missouri politics.”

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Stop the Ban and the Oak Foundation did not respond to requests for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

Missouri voters will decide on a proposed constitutional amendment that would repeal the state’s 2024 abortion-rights amendment and allow lawmakers to restrict access to abortion on election day 2026. The measure would ban most abortions but allow exceptions for rape and incest under 12 weeks, medical emergencies and fetal anomalies, while also prohibiting gender transition procedures for minors.

Stop the Ban is the primary committee opposing the ballot measure. 

Under Missouri law, organizations donating to political committees such as Stop the Ban must attest that they received less than $10,000 in the four years prior to their contribution from “prohibited sources.” Missouri defines “prohibited sources” as “contributions from or expenditures by a foreign national made with the intent to use such funds to influence an election on a ballot measure.”

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Stop the Ban, similarly, was required by state law to attest that it had not “directly or indirectly” received financial support from a foreign national during its fundraising period. 

In addition to funding from the Oak Foundation, the ACLU has also received millions of dollars in donations from philanthropies linked to by Wyss, the Swiss billionaire.

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APT is requesting that Missouri’s attorney general open an investigation to probe “whether, and to what extent, the ACLU Foundation and Stop the Ban may have evaded Missouri’s Foreign Influence in Ballot Measures Act.”

“Given the substantial evidence in our complaint, and Attorney General Hanaway’s work to end foreign interference in Missouri, we have full confidence the state will take swift action against both organizations,” APT executive director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News Digital. “This is yet another illustration of why every state should have laws on the books banning foreign money in ballot campaigns.”