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Jun 30, 2006 -- Legal Center Weekly Report: June 30, 2006
On Wednesday June 28, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the Texas Redistricting case. Texas had revised its congressional boundaries in 2003 and replaced a plan drawn by a federal court in 2001 with one designed to maximize partisan gain. In its decision, the Supreme Court found that mid-decade redistricting done solely for the purpose of maximizing partisan advantage was not unconstitutional. A majority of the Court did reaffirm that political gerrymandering cases may still be brought in the courts, but the Court did not articulate a constitutional standard for measuring partisan gerrymandering. The Court also found that one district in South Texas from the 2003 map violated the Voting Rights Act, and must be redrawn. J. Gerald Hebert, Executive Director and Director of Litigation at the Campaign Legal Center, served as lead counsel for the Texas Democrats on the case. Hebert's comments about the decision included the following: "The decision could open the floodgates for partisan re-redistricting. Today's decision points to the very serious need for meaningful redistricting reform so that independent commissions, and not partisan gerrymandering politicians, get to draw the lines."
To read the full press release, click here.
To view the Supreme Court decision in the Texas Redistricting Case, click here.
In another decision issued by the Supreme Court this week, the Court struck down Vermont's spending and contribution limits in Randall v. Sorrell . The Court did, however, leave the past 30 years of Court doctrine on campaign finance law unchanged. Trevor Potter, President of the Legal Center stated, "With this decision, the constitutional doctrine remains that expenditure limits are unconstitutional unless voluntary, and that contribution limits may be unconstitutionally low if the evidence indicates they prevent candidates, especially challengers, from mounting competitive campaigns." The Court also offered detailed guidelines for future state legislatures to set contribution limits without violating the Constitution.
To view the full press release, click here.
To view the Supreme Court's decision in Randall v. Sorrell , click here.
The Campaign Legal Center, joined by Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG sent a letter to all House Members this week asking them to support the new lobbying and ethics reform legislation introduced by Reps. Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Martin Meehan (D-MA). The new legislation, H.R. 5677, represents real reform to address the corruption prevalent in Congress. The letter states, "The lobbying and ethics bills passed by the House and Senate this year, and awaiting a House-Senate conference, are cosmetic reforms that have been correctly labeled as phony reforms by editorial pages throughout the country." The letter goes on to say, "Regardless of whether an illusory reform bill is enacted this year, Congress needs to enact real reforms to address the root causes of the worst congressional corruption scandals in decades."
To view the full press release and letter, click here.
Legal Center Supports FEC Replacement Bill
This week, the Campaign Legal Center issued a statement unequivocally supporting the Federal Election Administration Act of 2006 (H.R. 5676 and S. 3560) introduced by Representatives Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA) and Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russ Feingold (D-WI). Trevor Potter stated, "The legislation will introduce impartially to the process of enforcing the nation's election laws through the use of administrative law judges and at the same time will give the agency significant enforcement powers." The Federal Election Commission has long been the subject of scrutiny for its failure to enforce campaign finance laws.
To view the full press release, click here.
To view text of the legislation, click here.
Legal Center Blog Highlights
Each week, the Campaign Legal Center staff posts blog entries on its site, www.clcblog.org. To read the latest entries regarding this week's Supreme Court decision on contribution limits, or to sign up for blog updates, click here.
Week in the News
To read a variety of this week's editorials and articles on campaign finance , please click here. |
