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Jun 2, 2006 -- Legal Center Weekly Report: June 2, 2006
On May 31, 2006 , the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied the Christian Civic League of Maine's (CCLM) motion to stay proceedings in CCLM v. FEC. The order also calls for counsel to appear in Court on Monday June 5 for a scheduling conference.
The CCLM is challenging BCRA's "electioneering communications" provisions, which prohibit corporations and labor unions from using general treasury funds to pay for broadcast ads clearly identifying federal candidates within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election. The CCLM wants to use corporate treasury funds to pay for broadcast ads clearly identifying Senator Snowe, who is a candidate in the June 13 primary—claiming it is entitled to an exemption for what it characterizes as "grass roots lobbying" ads.
The three-judge court had denied the CCLM's request for a preliminary injunction, emphasizing that the CCLM plaintiffs could run their broadcast ad using PAC funds or even using general treasury funds if they simply removed the specific reference to Senator Snowe.
The Legal Center is part of the legal team representing defendant-intervenors Senators McCain and Feingold, and Congressmen Shays, Meehan and Allen. Other members of the legal team include Democracy 21, University of Virginia law professor Dan Ortiz , and attorneys at the law firms: Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr; Heller Ehrman; and Munger Tolles and Olson.
To read the Court's order, click here .
To read other documents in this case, click here .
Legal Center Urges FCC to Put Public Obligations First
This week, Campaign Legal Center Policy Director Meredith McGehee issued a statement regarding the Federal Communications Commission's upcoming rulemaking on digital multicasting must-carry. McGehee urged the FCC to issue "meaningful and effective" public interest obligations for broadcasters before ruling on must-carry. According to the statement, "the FCC should complete its stalled public interest rulemaking for broadcasters by establishing minimum requirements for substantive civic or electoral programming and set clear standards and definitions for meeting those obligations to the public."
To read the full statement, click here .
This week, the Campaign Legal Center joined Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen, and U.S. PIRG in issuing a statement on the House-Senate Conference to resolve differences in the lobbying reform bills passed by the two legislative bodies. The groups have previously criticized both bills, and do not expect any improvements in the bill to be reported out by the conference committee.
According to the group statement, "Regardless of whether a conference report passes… the House and Senate must go back to square one and produce real, not cosmetic, reforms to address the worst congressional corruption scandals in decades."
To read the full statement by the reform groups, click here .
To view a side by side analysis of the bills with current law, click here .
Week in the News
To read a variety of this week's editorials and articles on campaign finance, please click here. |
