And no one has stopped a word of mouth campaign. Call that critter. Call 5 of your friends to call that critter. Have them call 5 of their friends.
There is nothing that has stopped us from contacting that congress critter and making him/her aware of our concerns. there's nothing to stop us from calling our friends to call them. We just can't make an ad for our "friendly" congresscritter at certain times to "help their effort."
You see nothing wrong with that?
Those large groups -- viz. the 241-chapter, 77,000- contributor Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life -- are made up of small people like me and my wife who typically make contributions of approximately $20-30. And what Court is now legitimately and constitutionally going to tell us that MCCL can't publish the Democratic candidate's voting record on partial-birth abortion bills, no matter how close to the election that documented information is disseminated?
We just can't make an ad for our "friendly" congresscritter at certain times to "help their effort."
And that's an arbitrary, whimsical abrogation of First Amendment freedom.
The Free Republic Washington Times ad was printed in February, before the Senate vote, so it would not have been affected by the new law.
However, it certainly appears that the new law would have made it illegal to run it in the months before the House vote, which took place just after the election.
Perhaps a case like that (with facts- which were totally absent in the special 'advisory' way the court heard this) will arise and persuade the court, or congress, to further restrict the law.