Campaign Finance Rules May Get Overhaul in U.S. High Court Case

[shugah]

Campaign Finance Rules May Get Overhaul in U.S. High Court Case

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has a chance to rewrite the legal rules for election spending and fund raising in a dispute over the nation's strictest campaign- finance limits.

The justices today will hear arguments in Washington on a 1997 Vermont law, signed by then-Governor Howard Dean, that caps candidate spending and limits contributions to as little as $200 per election cycle for each candidate. A Republican-backed suit says the limits violate constitutional free-speech rights.

The case marks the first major test on the subject for the court's newest members, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. The dispute offers the court a chance to revise its landmark 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision, which authorized limits only on contributions, not on spending.

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Backers of the law include the Democratic National Committee, now led by Dean, and a bipartisan set of current and former lawmakers featuring Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. In advocating for the law in 1997, Dean said bluntly that ``money does buy access, and we're kidding ourselves and Vermonters if we deny it.''

The Vermont Republican State Committee and the Vermont Right to Life Committee are leading the challenge to the law. Their lawyer, James Bopp Jr., says candidate spending is a form of speech that is ``at the core'' of the First Amendment.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aeYRb988PB.Y&refer=us

[acmejack]

1. Right to freedom of speech upheld!

First Opus Dei Roberts Court Ruling out!

Supremes rule Americans entitled to all the freedom they can afford to pay for! Can't afford freedom, then you are unworthy, so sayeth the Lord!

[donkeyotay]

2. It's right in the Constitution

"All citizens will be required to pay to play and perform acts of bribery for access to representation. Those with the most money deserve the most access, and citizens without adequate discretionary income will do without the right to be heard in the corporate press, to be heard when lobbyist write bills in closed committees, or to be heard at the corporate ballot box as embodied in the principle, One rich man, one vote."