AP: Supreme Court invalidates a key provision of McCain-Feingold - “Courts allow issue ads near elections”
The U.S. Supreme Court today decided that a key provision of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform law was an infringement on First Amendment rights. Here is an excerpt from the AP article - “Courts Allow Issue Ads Near Elections” on Yahoo! News:
The Supreme Court loosened political advertising restrictions aimed at corporate- and union-funded television ads Monday, weakening a key provision of a landmark campaign finance law.
The court’s 5-4 ruling could become a significant factor in the upcoming presidential primaries, giving interest groups a louder and more influential voice in the closing days before those contests as well as the general election…The provision in question was aimed at preventing the airing of issue ads that cast candidates in positive or negative lights while stopping short of explicitly calling for their election or defeat. Sponsors of such ads have contended they are exempt from certain limits on contributions in federal elections.A first test of the impact of the court’s opinion could come as early as December, a month before presidential caucuses and primaries in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
The ruling could have important implications for the 2008 presidential election and could reorder the advertising strategies of corporate America and labor unions over the next two years,” said Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, which oversees campaign finance law.
The decision is a setback for Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., who helped write the 2002 campaign finance legislation with Feingold that contained the advertising provision. McCain, now a presidential candidate, has come under criticism from conservatives for attempting to restrict political money and political advertising.
“It is regrettable that a split Supreme Court has carved out a narrow exception by which some corporate and labor expenditures can be used to target a federal candidate in the days and weeks before an election,” McCain said in a statement.
The court’s decision, however, has no effect on the more far-reaching component of the campaign finance law - its ban on the ability of political parties to raise unlimited and unrestricted amounts of money from unions, corporations and wealthy donors.
“Fortunately,” McCain said, “that central reform still stands as the law.”
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has been critical of McCain’s stance, promptly hailed the court’s decision.
“McCain-Feingold was a poorly-crafted bill,” Romney said in a statement. “Today’s decision restores, in part, to the American people a right critical to their freedom of political participation and expression.”
An array of interest groups across the political spectrum sought the outcome the court reached Monday. They include the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Rifle Association, labor unions and business groups.”
The Tower’s analysis:
Undoubtedly, Senator McCain is unhappy that a key provision of the legislation - the passage of which he staked a great deal of political capital and may very well have undermined his own presidential aspirations - has now been invalidated.
However - ironically - this decision could actually help Senator McCain’s presidential campaign, by muting some of the anger that conservative interest groups have toward him, in light of his role as the de facto creator of this legislation. One of the provisions which they found most objectionable has now been removed. It certainly isn’t going to damage him, politically.
Read the entire article here.
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