Posted on 01/14/2006 6:32:43 AM PST by Libloather
Supreme Court to Hear First Amendment Case
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in an anti-abortion group's First Amendment challenge to advertising limits in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.
Wisconsin Right to Life was barred in 2004 from broadcasting ads that mentioned Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat facing re-election who co-authored the law with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. A provision of the law banned the use of corporate or union money for ads identifying federal candidates two months before a general election.
In 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the law, 5-4, but Wisconsin Right to Life argues that its ads should have been allowed anyway because they constituted lobbying, not electioneering. The commercials urged people to call Feingold and Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., asking them to oppose filibustering President Bush's judicial selections.
Ironically, the court takes up the case while the Senate is debating Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, whom Democrats won't rule out filibustering. But his nomination appears headed for approval.
In the first challenge to how the law was working in practice, Wisconsin Right to Life in 2004 sought an injunction barring the Federal Election Commission from enforcing the provision against it. But a federal district court denied the request, and a month later, then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist declined the group's request to intervene.
"The point of our ads was not to influence an election, but to lobby upcoming action in Congress," said James Bopp Jr., an attorney for Wisconsin Right to Life. "The ads said nothing about elections, or the senators' character, or even their positions."
But the Bush administration, which is defending the law, wrote in a brief that such an argument "assumes a clean divide between lobbying and electioneering communications that simply does not exist in the real world."
"Advertisements exhorting interested citizens to contact their elected representatives may also have the purpose of influencing those citizens' votes," the government added.
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which supports the law, called the commercials "classic sham issue ads, right before the election."
And he noted that Wisconsin Right to Life could have run the ads had it used political action committee money, which must be raised in smaller, limited amounts.
Wisconsin Right to Life said that was not a viable option. In its filing, the group said it had only $14,000 in its PAC at the time it wanted to run the ads, which would have cost $100,000. It said there wasn't enough time to raise the money through its PAC.
"Incumbent politicians should not be able to shield themselves from lobbying about upcoming votes in Congress through campaign finance regulations," the group said in its filing.
Bopp said groups from across the political spectrum, including the liberal Alliance for Justice, filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the anti-abortion group's case.
In the 2003 case, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was an author of the court's majority opinion and provided the deciding vote. Although she will hear arguments on Tuesday, she will likely be off the court by the time it issues its ruling, assuming Alito is confirmed by the Senate.
That sets up the possibility of a 4-4 deadlock, in which case the court could either affirm the lower court ruling or schedule new oral arguments with Alito on the bench.
The case is Wisconsin Right to Life v. Federal Election Commission, 04-1581.
HERE is the sort of case that could/should have waited until Justice Alito was seated.
The Manchurian Candidate and an open socialist are doing their best to destroy America.
Oddly enough, thanks to a loophole in McCain-Feingold and a ruling by the FEC, Indian tribes aren't covered by the same rules as everybody else. And guess who the biggest recipient of tribal money is up on the Hill: Sen. McKeating...er, McCain.
I guess it's always best to read the whole post...
McCain should be censured. Feingold should be shipped out to a country more in tune with his attitude toward the First Amendment ~ maybe Big China ~ he could get a job there with Yahoo or Microsoft.
I hope Alito is on the bench and can decide this case. In fact, I hope McCain-Feingold is delcared unconstitutional, period.
This is disgraceful---both the argument and the defense of it by the Bush administration.
"Advertisements exhorting interested citizens to contact their elected representatives may also have the purpose of influencing those citizens' votes," the government added.
Ads urging people to contact representatives! Maybe trying to influence votes! Shocking!
what is the means of getting him up to speed?
I heard if he's on the court by the time they rule, he can join in, but some say it would have to be reheard.
anybody know which it is?
It would have to be reheard. In order to participate in the opinion, a Justice is expected to be "on the court" at the time of oral argument. That "vile" group, the COngressional Research Service has a publication on it, prepared in light of O'Connor's unprecedented decision to make her step down date contingent and coincident with a replacement being confirmed.
"The fascist lawyer at the White House defending the government's position against these ads should be fired."
Do you think some staff lawyer at the White House is grinding his own ax and not acting at the direction of his employer, the president? Bush signed this monstrosity into law and now he is defending it. He's wrong on all counts, of course, but don't blame the lawyer(s).
Yes, blame the lawyer. If the President were not able to count on the myriad of staff attorneys available to the White House, he'd be more careful with what he signs into law in the future.
It would have to be reheard. In order to participate in the opinion, a Justice is expected to be "on the court" at the time of oral argument. That "vile" group, the COngressional Research Service has a publication on it, prepared in light of O'Connor's unprecedented decision to make her step down date contingent and coincident with a replacement being confirmed.
The document can be obtained from -> http://opencrs.cdt.org/document/RS22300
Direct Link -> http://digital.library.unt.edu/.../RS22300_2005Oct18.pdf
It's short.
The link below has a few others that may be of interest, such as ...
Speed of Presidential and Senate Actions on Supreme Court Nominations, 1900-2005
Report Number: RL33118 (under the category "Congress")
Here is also why the Dims want to delay the confirmation for another week.
Oh, geezzzz. On this one, I strongly part company with the Congress (McCain-Feingold), President Bush (who signed it), the Justice Department (which defends it) and the Supreme Court (its first decision upholding this terrible law). What could be more clear than this:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
McCain-Feingold was supposed to clean up politics. Yet now we are on the cusp of the latest Congressional money-and-lobbying scandal. McCain-Feingold can only be considered an abject failure at its supposed core purpose, although it succeeds in abridging the people's freedom of speech and right to petition the Government.
The idiots on the Supreme Court should just throw the law out altogether.
Please let O'Conner be gone when this case is decided.
Roberts decides when the ruling comes down. He will wait until Alito is by his side. I am sure of it.
Article VI of the Constitution of the United States of America requires that Supreme Court justices take an oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution. They should take this oath in public on the steps of the Supreme Court in front of We The People......not in some secret chamber without witnesses.
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