Supreme Court expedites WRTL campaign-finance case
The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court stepped back into the debate over campaign finance regulation on Friday, announcing an expedited review of a ruling last month that substantially narrowed the application of a major provision of the McCain-Feingold federal campaign law.
At issue is a section of the 2002 statute that imposes a blackout period before elections on television advertisements that meet the law’s definition of “electioneering communications” and that are paid for from the general treasuries of corporations or labor unions.
The question is how to reconcile that provision with the free-speech rights of groups that say they are engaged in grass-roots lobbying, the sort of genuine issue advertising the First Amendment protects.
The court heard the same case a year ago, shortly before Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. took his seat last January. Faced with the prospect of a 4-to-4 deadlock in the absence of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who was days away from retirement and would not have been able to participate in a decision, the court then sent the case back to the lower court. -- Justices Revisit Campaign Finance Issue - New York Times