From the Center For Responsive Politics.
Larry Noble, executive director and general counsel of the Center for Responsive Politics, issued the following statement in reaction to today's federal court decision on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Noble served for 13 years as general counsel of the Federal Election Commission.
“Today's court decision amounts to a split decision that gives supporters and opponents of this law something to cheer -- and complain -- about. Regardless, the decision will become a footnote in history once the Supreme Court rules on the law.
“Although today's decision strikes down the broad ban on the national party committees raising and spending soft money, it upholds the prohibition on the national party committees using soft money for ads that support or oppose a federal candidate. This prohibits the national parties from using unlimited contributions to pay for so-called 'issue' ads, which they have become increasingly reliant on. State and local parties also will be prohibited from using soft money in ads that mention a federal candidate. The court also upheld the prohibition on federal officeholders and candidates raising soft money.
“The court struck down the prohibition on interest groups using soft money to pay for 'issue' ads that mention a candidate in the weeks immediately prior to an election. But it upheld a backup provision in the law that bans interest groups from using soft money for ads run -- at any time -- that support or oppose a federal candidate.
About the same as Common Cause's below. There's more if you follow the link. The bottom line is this is going to the Supremes, and they've supported reform, and overturned lower courts, in both 2000 and 2001. So it will be interesting to see what happens. I'm betting that they uphold the McCain-Feingold bill in total.
