This week, a unanimous federal appeals court struck a small but telling blow for privacy, free speech and accurate campaign disclosure. In Van Hollen v. Federal Election Commission, the lower court had ruled that organizations making electioneering communications — broadcast communications that merely mention a candidate’s name within 60 days before a general election — must disclose information on all of their donors, even those unconnected to the ads in question. The FEC’s regulation had previously required public disclosure only of donors who had paid for particular communications.

As a result of today’s ruling, organizations can mention candidates in the coming weeks without being forced to disclose their entire donor lists. This is an improvement: Until today, groups that merely mentioned a candidate — for example, an ad that says “We stand with our President” — were required to disclose information on all of their donors. However, if a group ran an ad explicitly saying to vote for or against a candidate — for example, “The President’s policy in the Middle East has failed. Vote for new leadership this fall” — the group could keep its donors’ privacy intact.