Court sides with California in fight over Koch group donors

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A U.S. appeals court says California’s attorney general can collect the names and addresses of top donors to two conservative nonprofit groups, including one with links to the billionaire Koch brothers.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that information from Americans for Prosperity Foundation and Thomas More Law Center serve the important state goal of preventing charities from committing fraud.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation is a charitable organization linked to the primary political organization supported by brothers David and Charles Koch. The brothers’ organizations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Republican candidates and conservative policies.

An email to an attorney who represented the foundation and law center, Derek Shaffer, was not immediately returned Tuesday.