Free Republic

Let us hope that Supreme 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 Election Commission,...

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) yesterday postponed a controversial decision on subjecting Internet political speech to campaign-finance regulations, raising the stakes for today’s scheduled House vote on a bill that exempts all blogs, Web ads and other online communications. The heated debate over a proposal by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) to exclude online content from the “public communications” covered by campaign-finance law has engulfed every corner of the political world, splitting both Democrats and Republicans and pitting mainstream editorial boards against left- and right-wing bloggers.The House Rules Committee scheduled a meeting late yesterday to determine the ground rules for debate...

Jurist says the Federal Elections Commission even may be fostering corruption. WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Election Commission repeatedly misinterpreted the 2002 campaign finance reform legislation when it issued rules implementing the law, creating in at least one case "an immense loophole" that could "foster corruption." But the decision will likely have no impact on this year's election, experts said today. Still, the ruling by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who oversaw the Microsoft settlement, was yet another blow to the beleaguered agency, which has come under fire from key members of Congress and reformers...