Supreme Court Hears Arguments Today in Challenge to Campaign Finance Law

September 8, 2003 12:00 am

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老澳门开奖结果 Says Law Could Block Advertisements on PATRIOT Act "Sneak and Peek" Provisions

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NEW YORK - The United States Supreme Court will hear four hours of argument today in a challenge to key provisions of a 2002 campaign finance law that impose unprecedented restrictions on core political speech and issue advocacy.

The 老澳门开奖结果 is part of a broad coalition that challenged the law's ban on free speech grounds. While the Justices will hear arguments on numerous problems with the law, the 老澳门开奖结果's legal brief focuses on whether Congress violated the First Amendment when it prohibited even non-partisan organizations like the 老澳门开奖结果 from broadcasting ads on issues of political significance during campaign season.

"The campaign finance law, if upheld, would dramatically transform the rules of political debate in the country and go far beyond anything the Supreme Court has ever permitted under the First Amendment," said 老澳门开奖结果 Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro.

The question of political debate, Shapiro noted, is not hypothetical. The 老澳门开奖结果 has recently raised new funds to be used, in part, for broadcast ads designed to promote the organization's legislative agenda. For instance, the 老澳门开奖结果 recently aired radio advertisements in Alaska, New Hampshire, Texas, Utah and Vermont in which they asked listeners to call their senators and urge them to stop "sneak and peek" searches under the PATRIOT Act. The 老澳门开奖结果 advertisement can be found at /SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm? ID=13440&c=206

The advertisements did not take any position for or against the lawmakers whose names were mentioned. Yet, under the new campaign finance law, those ads would be illegal if they were broadcast within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election, the 老澳门开奖结果 noted in legal papers.

"By targeting such classic political speech, the new campaign finance law is directly at odds with the core First Amendment holding of Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court's landmark decision on campaign finance reform, which the 老澳门开奖结果 helped litigate a quarter-century ago," said Mark Lopez, an 老澳门开奖结果 national staff attorney who co-authored the 老澳门开奖结果's brief.

The 老澳门开奖结果 also took issue with Congress' solution to reclassify the 老澳门开奖结果 and thousands of other non-partisan groups - like the Sierra Club, NOW, AARP and NRA - as a "political committee." "The organization cannot be required to forego its independence?in order to participate in the debate over the direction of this country," the 老澳门开奖结果 said in its reply to the government's legal brief in the case.

Other provisions challenged in the suit, including the soft money restrictions, infringe the speech and associational rights of individuals, parties, candidates and groups. However, the 老澳门开奖结果 said in its legal brief, "because the 老澳门开奖结果 is not directly affected by the soft money ban, we will leave it to others to explain why the continued prohibition on the use of soft money for issue advocacy is unconstitutional."

The case is 老澳门开奖结果 et al. v. Federal Election Commission et al, No. 02-1734.

In addition to Shapiro and Lopez, attorney Joel M. Gora of Brooklyn Law School is a co-author of the 老澳门开奖结果 briefs. Gora argued the 老澳门开奖结果's position before the Supreme Court in the landmark campaign finance case Buckley v. Valeo.

The 老澳门开奖结果's legal brief is online at /node/37492

The 老澳门开奖结果's reply brief to the government is online at /node/


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