Appeals Court Throws Out Campaign Finance Limits

at least for non-profits. This case arises from a pro-abortion group that wished to run ads supporting Democrat candidates. The FEC told them that their contributions were limited and they sued under the 1st amendment. The appeals court overturned the FEC's ruling reasoning:

"The First Amendment, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, protects the right of individual citizens to spend unlimited amounts to express their views about policy issues and candidates for public office," the court ruling said. The First Amendment also "safeguards the right of citizens to band together and pool their resources as an unincorporated group or nonprofit organization in order to express their views about policy issues and candidates for public office."

I am sure there are 75 lawyer-commenters who will be willintg to tell me why I am wrong, but this seems very similar to the case that was just argued before the Supreme Court regarding the group that wanted to show the Hillary Clinton film in last years election. Is this a hint on how they will rule? I can't believe that the appeals court would release their ruling if they believed that in a couple months it was just going to be overturned. Oh wait scratch that. The 9th circuit does it on a daily basis.

posted by xgenghisx at 09:21 PM

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