Free Republic

Republicans have never been closer to actually repealing large chunks of what they dismiss as “Obamacare.” Within two short weeks, the GOP will likely either be reveling in their unexpected victory or mired in deep infighting over the party’s failure to live up to a pledge it has made over the last seven years. Some Republicans remain optimistic — and Democrats fearful — that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) can pull off the negotiating tricks necessary, but he still faces an uphill fight in winning the votes to pass the Better Care Reconciliation Act by his tentative deadline of...

Hillary Clinton’s stumbling campaign for the White House is geared to take advantage of voter ignorance at every turn: ignorance about the government’s ability to promote prosperity, ignorance about the impact of minimum wage laws, ignorance about the damage done by her policies while serving as Secretary of State, and – the point of this piece – ignorance about the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Leftist politicians from Barack Obama down have created a mythology that Citizens United was a disastrous decision because it allows big, rich, right-wing corporations to buy our elections. Hillary...

The "Affordable Care Act" might die a death of a thousand legal cuts. Last June, upon learning that the Supreme Court had ruled Obamacare's individual mandate constitutional, many observers were forced to concur with the Dickens character who opined, "If the law supposes that… the law is an ass." Yet, the increasing number of anti-PPACA lawsuits that have been receiving serious attention from the courts suggests that the legal system may not be as irrational as it seemed when Chief Justice John Roberts began braying from the bench on June 28. If this seems Pollyannaish, consider the fate of McCain-Feingold....

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...