Constitutional Opinion No. 2026-0897
Case Information
- Source
- congress.gov / U.S. Government Publishing Office (BILLS-119s4130is)
- Author
- 119th Congress (Sen. Joni Ernst, Sen. Rick Scott)
- Publication Date
- 2026-03-18
- Content Type
- Legal / Normative Text
- Opinion Issued
- 2026-07-22
- AFCS Version
- 1.0
Holding
A clean taxpayer-transparency measure that makes the government tell the citizen, plainly, how much of what he is looking at he paid for — scoring solidly in the aligned band with no offsetting cost. When an agency or federal-fund recipient publicly touts a program, it must disclose what share and dollar amount came from the taxpayer, rather than presenting federally-financed activity as free or privately produced. It advances honest money in the transparency sense (X) — an honest accounting of public funds is the precondition of fiscal discipline; attacks the obfuscation through which spending grows unseen, with real teeth via OMB review and an anonymous public flagging system (XII); and rests on the taxpayer's right to know (II). Well-built: enforcement (certification, OMB sampling, public reporting) rather than exhortation, and a sensible 280-character exemption. Nothing to price against it — no new spending, no mandate on the private citizen, only truth-in-labeling on those who spend or receive public money. No Rule 6 trigger. Legal/Normative Text (85/15), no JI. Mostly America First (78).
It is the judgment of this Court that Opinion No. 2026-0897 is hereby entered into the record, in accordance with the America First Constitutional Standard. The score stands. The reasoning is published. The record is public.