From The Hotline for Thursday, June 26, 2008

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

It's A Great Day To Be A Millionaire (Like Most Days, We Guess)

Thu. Jun 26, 2008


The SCOTUS struck down the "Millionaires' Amendment" today, calling the law "fundamentally at war" with fed. campaign expenditure and contribution limits, while siding with '04/'06 NY-26 nominee/'08 candidate Jack Davis (D). Justice Samuel Alito was joined in his opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas in a 5-4 decision.

Alito wrote the law that the law "violates the First Amendment" and that "different candidates have different strengths. ... Some are wealthy, others have wealthy supporters who are willing to make large contributions ... some are celebrities, some have the benefit of a well-known family name. Leveling electoral opportunities means making and implementing judgments about which strengths should be permitted to contribute to the outcome of an election. The Constitution, however, confers upon voters, not Congress, the power to choose the Members of the House of Representatives and it is a dangerous business for Congress to use the election laws to influence the voters' choices."

More Alito: "If the normally applicable limits on individual contributions and coordinated party contributions are seriously distorting the electoral process, if they are feeding a 'public perception that wealthy people can buy seats in Congress,' and if those limits are not needed in order to combat corruption, then the obvious remedy is to raise or eliminate those limits. But the unprecedented step of imposing different contribution and coordinated party expenditure limits on candidates vying for the same seat is antithetical to the First Amendment" (Murray, RollCall.com, 6/26).

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