Free Republic

For years, many of us in the blogosphere have argued that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, better known as McCain-Feingold, violates the fundamental Constitutional exercise of free speech, especially in politics, which the founders expressly intended to protect. The Supreme Court failed in its duty to protect the First Amendment when it had the chance, as did George W. Bush when he signed the legislation into law. Finally, a federal appellate court has recognized the insult to the Constitution that the BCRA represents: A federal appeals court overturned hard-fought campaign finance reform regulations in a ruling on Friday that will...

During Wednesday's extraordinary Supreme Court oral argument in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, some of the more remarkable moments came when Justice John Paul Stevens repeatedly referred, with approval, to a brief filed in the case by the National Rifle Association. Not a pairing you might expect, but Stevens saw in the brief a possible way to rule on the case narrowly, without totally upending major Court precedents on corporate and union spending in election campaigns.The NRA brief, authored by Charles Cooper of Cooper & Kirk in D.C., joined the opponents of spending restrictions by agreeing with Citizens United...

Bad Supreme Court precedent can and should be ignoredNext Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a rare second round of oral arguments in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. At issue is the documentary Hillary: The Movie, which was produced by the conservative group Citizens United and intended for distribution before the 2008 elections. As Justice Stephen Breyer noted during the first round of arguments back in March, the film "is not a musical comedy." It's a 90-minute political harangue attacking Clinton's ideas and character. In other words, it's exactly the sort of controversial political speech...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will cut short its summer break in early September to hear a new argument in a momentous case that could transform the way political campaigns are conducted. The case, which arises from a minor political documentary called “Hillary: The Movie,” seemed an oddity when it was first argued in March. Just six months later, it has turned into a juggernaut with the potential to shatter a century-long understanding about the government’s ability to bar corporations from spending money to support political candidates. The case has also deepened a profound split among liberals, dividing those who...

The Court has held that Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205) will be reargued on Wednesday, September 9 at 10 a.m. The Court has issued the following written order: “The parties should address the following question: ‘For the disposition of this case, should the Court overrule either or both Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the part of McConnell v. FEC which addresses the facial validity of Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002?’

Thanks to campaign finance reform, activists can go to jail if their movie makes a politician look bad."I'm a little disoriented here," Justice Antonin Scalia said during last week's oral arguments in a case involving legal restrictions on movies that criticize politicians. "We are dealing with a constitutional provision, are we not, the one that I remember, which says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press?"Scalia's discombobulation was understandable, given that Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart had just claimed the First Amendment does not bar the government from telling interest groups what videos they may post...

The so-called Wounded Warriors Act, legislation intended to improve health care for veterans, has attracted nearly unanimous, bipartisan support in Congress. So why would the newly formed Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America begin running a television commercial urging the citizens of South Carolina to tell Congress to pass it? The answer lies in the commercial’s glowing images of Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican banking on a South Carolina victory to jump-start his cash-poor Republican primary campaign. The group that paid for the advertisement operates independently of Mr. McCain’s campaign, but was set up and financed by his...

The Supreme Court just concluded its October 2006 term, and in a long-awaited decision, took the first step in restoring political free speech. The Supreme Court began dismantling the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, or BCRA – great news for the First Amendment. You'll remember that for several years the issue of Democrats filibustering President Bush's nominees to the federal courts was a hot political issue. Whole campaigns were centered on it. And plenty of conservative groups were engaged in that fight. Wisconsin Right to Life, or WRTL, is that state's affiliate of National Right to Life, and one...

An ongoing danger, despite two recent court victoriesIn February 2006, Norm Feck learned that the city of Parker, Colorado was thinking about annexing his neighborhood, Parker North. Feck attended a meeting on the annexation, realized that it would mean more bureaucracy, and concluded that it wouldn’t be in Parker North residents’ interest. Together with five other Parker North locals, he wrote letters to the editor, handed out information sheets, formed an Internet discussion group, and printed up anti-annexation yard signs, which soon began sprouting throughout the neighborhood. That’s when annexation supporters took action—not with their own public campaign, but with...

In February 2006, Norm Feck learned that the city of Parker, Colorado was thinking about annexing his neighborhood, Parker North. Feck attended a meeting on the annexation, realized that it would mean more bureaucracy, and concluded that it wouldn’t be in Parker North residents’ interest. Together with five other Parker North locals, he wrote letters to the editor, handed out information sheets, formed an Internet discussion group, and printed up anti-annexation yard signs, which soon began sprouting throughout the neighborhood. That’s when annexation supporters took action—not with their own public campaign, but with a legal complaint against Feck and his...

LET us hope that Su preme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who is rarely right about First Amendment matters, was right about what he said in April. During oral arguments about a challenge to a use of the McCain-Feingold law to suppress political speech, Breyer, who considers the suppression constitutional, said to the challenger: "If we agree with you in this case, goodbye McCain-Feingold." The challenger was a small group of Wisconsin citizens who, by their grass-roots lobbying for their political views, tried to commit the offense - the crime, actually - of influencing their U.S. senators during what the Federal...

Between the two party primaries and the general election, spending on the 2008 presidential race likely will exceed $1.5 billion (it topped $1 billion for the first time in 2004). Toss in congressional elections, and it's likely that total spending for control of the federal government in 2008 will top $5 billion (it was just under $4 billion in 2004). That doesn't include state and local races, nor does it include the money spent on lobbying, which topped $2 billion in 2004, a 35 percent jump from 2001. I tend to agree with many of the editorial boards and campaign...

Fred Dalton Thompson's flirtation with a presidential run has conservatives hopeful for a white knight in a field of compromise candidates in the GOP. The man whose career has spanned both Washington and Hollywood, and who has championed both conservatism and clean government, has a resumé that would make for compelling political theater. However, one issue in particular dogs every mention of his potential, and that is his support for the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, or McCain-Feingold -- the main reason conservatives distrust John McCain and have not supported his own presidential campaign. That may be changing. John Fund interviewed...

Associated Press WASHINGTON — The federal case against one of President Bush's boosters in Ohio is a signal to political campaigns that they will suffer more grief than usual if their biggest fundraisers run afoul of campaign finance laws. Criminal provisions of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as "McCain-Feingold," were invoked in the Oct. 27 arrest of coin dealer Tom Noe, a leading GOP fundraiser in the Toledo area. The Justice Department says it's the largest case of its kind under the law. Noe pleaded innocent Oct. 31 in federal court in Toledo to charges that he...

"I got elected. You may not criticize me." OK, the incumbents don't put it that way. They say: "There's too much money in politics! We need campaign finance reform." And they get it. "Reform" sounds good. McCain-Feingold and a host of state laws would protect us from the evil influence of big money. But that's nonsense. When our behemoth government has the power to spend more than $2 trillion every year, big money will find a way to try to influence it. It's the little guys, who aren't in office, who are silenced by "reform." McCain-Feingold makes it illegal for...

What issue could possibly draw conservative Republicans and the Congressional Black Caucus into a legislative alliance? This morning, the Washington Times reports that the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act's provisions on campaign limits hit sour notes with both groups, as traditional African-American outreach efforts got starved in favor of the massive influence of George Soros' 527 strategies in 2004: Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus are teaming up with conservative Republicans to push for the first major changes in the 2002 campaign-finance reform bill, most admitting that they made a mistake in voting for the bill three years ago....

If there's one ironclad law in the world of politics, it's the law of unintended consequences. Campaign finance reform has been in the news lately, serving as a prime example of what happens when utopian-minded politicians fail to take heed of this doctrine. Although there has always been a greater amount of antipathy on the right against campaign finance reform - "reform" usually being code for limitations on political speech and on the donations that fund that speech - new cross-spectrum outrage flared up recently because the Federal Election Commission hinted that it might start regulating internet weblogs. Under the...

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain (search) pressed a cable company's case for pricing changes with regulators at the same time a tax-exempt group that he has worked with since its founding solicited $200,000 in contributions from the company. Help from McCain, who argues for ridding politics of big money, included giving the CEO of Cablevision Systems Corp. (search) the opportunity to testify before his Senate committee, writing a letter of support to the Federal Communication Commission and asking other cable companies to support so-called a la carte pricing (search

The Federal Election Commission will consider rulemaking to apply the Bipartisan Campaign Act to politics on the web sometime in March 2005. An FEC employee told me there will be a press release on March 17th or 24th. According to articles on Zdnet and Worldnet Daily, proposed regulations may require blog posters to register with the FEC, report expenditures at regular intervals, assign a value to hyperlinks and set contribution limits. Do you want to familiarize yourself with terms like: political action committee (PAC), independent vs in-Kind donations, issue vs express advocacy, spending limits, reporting intervals and coordination with a...

As the primary Senate authors of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, we have spent years fighting to clean up elections and ensure that powerful monied interests do not drown out the voices of everyday Americans in our political system. Those interests don't want to give up any of their power, and their main tactic has been to try to whip up fears, however unfounded and unrealistic, about reform. The latest misinformation from the anti-reform crowd is the suggestion that our bill will require regulation of blogs and other Internet communications. A recent federal court decision requires the Federal...

Mr. President, Leader Frist, Speaker Delay, Senators McCain, Bond, and Talent, Congressman Graves, NRAILA, and Free Republic members, While listening to NRA News on my long drive home from Wichita today I was disturbed to hear that “Campaign Finance Reform” was again in the news. Apparently Senators McCain and Feingold have brought this abomination back up to protest the “527’s” and plug any “loopholes” in the BCRA law and to persuade the FEC to regulate speech on the internet. 5 hours have passed from this report and I can hardly contain my frustration. You guys need to hear this loud...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Excesses in McCain-FeingoldPublished March 5, 2005 The 2004 presidential campaign gave the lie to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 -- otherwise known as McCain-Feingold, whose intent is to keep "big money" out of politics. Billionaire George Soros is probably still chuckling about that. Now, Federal Election Commission commissioner Bradley Smith warns that legally it could be used to stifle free speech on the Internet.     Here's how: The law regulates political advertising coordinated with political campaigns that appears on "any broadcast, cable or satellite communication, newspaper, magazine, outdoor advertising facility, mass mailing or telephone bank...

The freewheeling days of Internet political advertising may be coming to an end. The Federal Election Commission plans to begin reviewing next month whether the Internet should continue to enjoy its privileged status as exempt from some of the stricter dictates of a 2002 campaign finance law. For the last three years, the FEC has been fighting to protect the rough-and-tumble world of Net advertising from being shackled by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, better known as the McCain-Feingold law. In the 2004 election, advocacy groups or rich individuals were able to coordinate online advertising with a political campaign without...

It's encouraging to see signs of life in Washington, particularly on the Republican side of the aisle, over the obvious need to plug the newest subterranean pipe for unregulated campaign funds from big labor, big corporations and just plain big money. Of all the subplots in the presidential election, none were as sorry as the Democrats' pioneering "527" groups - named for the section of the tax code that governs them. The 527's were intended to circumvent the law's strictures against having unlimited soft money flood into political races. The Democrats built these new shadow-party advocacy groups to attack the...

If the Federal Election Commission has any sense of shame, it will immediately meet in an emergency session to deal with a scathing new court decision that pinions the commission for what it has long been: the chief writer and enabler of election law loopholes that invite big-money corruption of the political process. In a stinging judgment, a federal judge in Washington struck down 15 of the F.E.C.'s recent rule interpretations as gimmicks transparently designed to undermine - not uphold - the campaign finance reform law of 2002. Rarely has a federal watchdog been so thoroughly rebuked. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly...

Joint Statement by Bush-Cheney Campaign Chairman Marc Racicot and RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie on Today’s FEC Ruling on 527 Groups (title edited for length)  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Christine Iverson202-863-8614 “The FEC’s decision today to do nothing to stop the massive spending of soft money “527” committees to influence the 2004 elections is unfortunate, but provides clarity. “It has always been clear to us that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“BCRA”) and its subsequent affirmation by the Supreme Court would limit the role of political parties in the political process and allow special interest “527” groups to proliferate. We had...

Washington, DC—The Republican National Committee and the Bush Cheney campaign today announced they are filing a complaint against third party 527 groups and the John Kerry for President campaign. “Senator Kerry, who supported the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA) is now the beneficiary of the single largest conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws in history,” said RNC Chief Counsel Jill Holtzman Vogel. The complaint which will be filed with the Federal Election Commission today outlines violations of campaign finance law including using soft money to advocate for or against a candidate for federal office and illegally coordinating campaign activity...

<p>Democrats in Congress owe Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith an apology. The man they once called "Dracula" and tried to banish from Washington may now save their ability to keep raising millions of dollars in "soft money" to defeat President Bush this November. And properly so.</p>

<p>The Republican National Committee plans to ask the Federal Election Commission today to ban the raising of $300 million or more in "soft money" by pro-Democratic groups seeking to pay for voter mobilization and TV ads in this year's elections.</p>

Losing Crusade May Still Pay Dividends for a Senator By CARL HULSE and GLEN JUSTICE Published: December 27, 2003 WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 — Senator Mitch McConnell was such a determined opponent of the new campaign finance law that when the fight moved from Congress to the courts, he made certain the decisive case was titled McConnell vs. F.E.C. Now, with the Supreme Court validating the campaign spending restrictions enforced by the Federal Election Commission in a ruling earlier this month, Mr. McConnell will remain strongly identified with the cause, but on the losing side. That twist is not lost on...

The First Amendment is dead. Repealed. History. Do I still have the right to still say that? Better check with the Supreme Court. In a strange decision last week, a 5-4 majority of the court upheld the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, often known as McCain-Feingold. One element of the law bars “soft money” donations to political parties. In other words, even if you want to give a fortune to the Democratic Party, you’ll no longer be allowed to. But political parties hardly matter anymore, because of another provision of McCain-Feingold. The law also bars them, and unions, interest groups...

New FEC Chairman Vows to Enforce Law Thu Dec 18, 5:13 PM ET Add U.S. Government - AP to My Yahoo! By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Democrats who have been forming special groups to avoid spending restrictions in the campaign finance law may soon face some bad news: The government's new chief election regulator is warning their activities could be reined in. Multimedia • Run for the White House 2004 (AP Flash) Bradley Smith, the Republican chosen Thursday as chairman of the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites), said he believes a recent Supreme Court ruling...

11 Republican Senators who voted for the BCFA of 2002:McCain, Fitzgerald, Lugar, Collins, Snowe, Cochran, Domenicic, Spector, Chafee, Thompson Warner41 Republican House Members voted for the BCFA of 2002:Bohlert, Bono, Capito, Castle, Ferguson, Foley, Frelinghausen, Ganske, Gilchrest, Gilman, Graham, Greenwood, Grucci, Houghton, Horn, Johnson(CT), Johnson(IL), Kirk, LaTourette, Leach, LoBiondo, McHugh, Morella, Osborne, Ose, Petri, Platts, Quinn, Ramstad, Ros-Lehtinen, Sanders, Shays, Simmons, Smith(Mi), Thune, Upton, Walsh(not my clan), Wamp, Weldon(Pa), WolfOne President Signed BCRA of 2002:President Bush

In a tragic decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that jeopardizes a cardinal principle of the U.S. Constitution: free speech. Concerned Women for America's Chief Counsel Jan LaRue noted that the decision means less protection for political speech, the very speech the First Amendment aims to shield, than for pornography. The following article comes to us from the James Madison Center for Free Speech of Washington, D.C. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution mandates that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech." Today the United States Supreme Court has...

Reports that main portions of McCain-Feingold are now being upheld! People currently wading through a decision of over 300 pages.

Many close observers of the Supreme Court expect a ruling in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA – better known as McCain-Feingold) case McConnell v. FEC before the High Court goes home for Christmas break on December 15. The National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the plaintiffs in McConnell, is already planning its next move. Even if only a threat, it’s a strategy you could easily imagine John Cleese of Monty Python fame coming up with – acting absurd to illustrate the absurdity of the law. It’s a beautiful idea. Under present law institutional media organizations like ABC or CNN,...

My daughter has a question as she prepares for her finals tomorrow in her First Amendment class. It is relating to campaign finance law and government restrictions on expendutures and contributions in the 1976 case of Buckley vs. Valeo. She doesn't understand the difference between individual contributions to candidates and independant individual expenditures relative to a clearly identified candidate. It seems that the court allows a limit on contributions but doesn't allow a limit on expenditures. She doesn't know how to tell the difference between individual contributions and individual expenditures. Also, she is confused about the difference between soft and...

reported 15:38 bloomberg news

What we view as rights they view as loopholes. What they view as acts impeding reform, we view as freedom. — Floyd Abrams, December 4, 2002Last week, the ceremonial courtroom in the Washington, D.C. federal courthouse hosted two days of oral arguments in the trial to test the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). Even this spacious location required some extra seating to accommodate the case, in the form of large folding tables set before the three-judge panel for the numerous attorneys arguing for the very numerous parties in the case. Luminaries like Ken Starr, Floyd Abrams,...

Dario Herrera is a Democratic candidate for Congress from Nevada's newly created 3rd Congressional District. While Herrera will face opposition from Republican state Senator Jon Porter and Independent Party candidate Pete O'Neil, his most dangerous opponent may be a Nevada business owner turned political writer. That writer's website, darioslittleproblem.com contains a collection of "reports" about Herrera's alleged involvement in unethical business dealings and purported abuses of his position as chairman of the County Commission in Clark County, Nevada to gain financial and political benefit. The site links to stories in the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal concerning...