Courts Roll Back Limits on Spending in Election Law

[Joanne98]

by David D. Kirkpatrick

WASHINGTON - Even before a landmark Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance law expected within days, a series of other court decisions is reshaping the political battlefield by freeing corporations, unions and other interest groups from many of the restrictions on their advertising about issues and candidates.

Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey said the Republican Party would benefit from a decision loosening spending rules. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)Legal experts and political operatives say the cases roll back campaign spending rules to the years before Watergate. The end of decades-old restrictions could unleash a torrent of negative advertisements, help cash-poor Republicans in a pivotal year and push President Obama to bring in more money for his party.

If the Supreme Court, as widely expected, rules against core elements of the existing limits, Democrats say they will try to enact new laws to reinstate the restrictions in time for the midterm elections in November. And advocates of stricter campaign finance laws say they hope the developments will prod the president to fulfill a campaign promise to update the presidential campaign financing system, even though it would diminish his edge as incumbent.

Many legal experts say they expect the court to use its imminent ruling, in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, to eliminate the remaining restrictions on advertisements for or against candidates paid for by corporations, unions and advocacy organizations. (The case centers on whether spending restrictions apply to a conservative group's documentary, "Hillary: The Movie.")

Even if the court rules more narrowly, legal experts and political advocates say that the 2010 elections will bring the first large-scale application of previous court decisions that have all but stripped away those restrictions. Though the rulings have not challenged the bans on direct corporate contributions to parties and candidates, political operatives say that as a practical matter the rulings and a deadlock at the Federal Election Commission have already opened wide latitude for independent groups to advocate for and against candidates.

"It will be no holds barred when it comes to independent expenditures," said Kenneth A. Gross, a veteran political law expert at the firm of Skadden Arps in Washington.

The United States Chamber of Commerce, the goliath of the lobbying world, is expected to outline its battle plan next week for the midterms. It spent $25 million on advertisements and get-out-the-vote efforts in the 2006 elections and $36 million in 2008, and will spend far more this year, chamber officials say. And in the last election it was already probing the limits of the court's rulings with commercials like one in New Hampshire denouncing Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, as "a taxing machine."

Continued>>>
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/09-0

[Demeter]

1. Verily I Say Unto You--The Compost Has Hit the Ventilator

Well, then, progressive groups should have no compunction painting the air blue with their exposes.

[texanshatingbush]

2. PLUTOCRACY, HERE WE COME !!!!

So much for "one man, one vote". We will soon have a no-apologies, in-your-face system of he who has the most money gets the most votes--or he who has the most money is able to skew the truth so widely and deeply that voters will base their decisions on generally-accepted lies.

Or perhaps the electorate will become so disgusted by the media screaming worst-case scenarios constantly that they will simply stay out of the voting booths, feeling that the situation is hopeless.

We will live in a country of Haves and Have Nots, and the latter will have no way to remedy their plight.

Ah, smell the Feudalism a-coming.


(Apologies for being so pessimistic. Someone talk me down!)

[clear eye]

3. This is about the most important post of the entire week.

There is a coalition of 38 NGOs (so far) that needs our help to pass a law to balance these disastrous SCOTUS rulings w/ a public campaign finance option. http://www.fairelectionsnow.org/volunteer

Helping the gen'l citizenry regain power in our federal gov't is key to everything we need so desperately from our gov't. It will save our party and reshape our country for the better. If we think the gov't needs to investigate election integrity, or reorder our priorities, or improve health care financing, or address climate change or do anything that would improve the gen'l quality of life in this country which special interests of the power elite is working against, we need the public campaign finance option! Let this energize us. Now is most definitely not the time to give up.

On a personal level, this is the one organization I recommended my 2 late-adolescent nieces become active in.

Also, while it might seem that LGBT issues would not be affected, this is most certainly not the case. Our unresponsive gov't seems disinterested in looking into questionable election outcomes from same-sex marriage referenda. People generally are more socially liberal in more comfortable times when they are not looking for scapegoats. The LGBT community definitely has a dog in this fight specifically for its own rights, in addition to being affected as citizens in general.

[d_b]

4. k&r

[liam_laddie]

5. BIG K & R (n/t)

[nightrain]

6. knr. Dangerous rollback! Thanks for posting this!!

[Vidar]

7. Another victory for Obama & the plutocrats.

[depakid]

8. Hardly a victory for Obama!

or the Dems.

But pretty clearly a victory for forces of corruption- and a grand stroke that ensures America continual decline into third world status.

[clear eye]

9. Kick.

:kick: