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Nov 3, 2006 -- Legal Center Weekly Report: November 3, 2006
On the eve of congressional elections likely to be skewed by gerrymandering, the Campaign Legal Center, the Council for Excellence in Government and the League of Women Voters this week released a report that calls for a national redistricting reform movement and offers guidance for state-level reform efforts. "Building A National Redistricting Reform Movement" looks at lessons learned from unsuccessful redistricting reform attempts in 2005 and suggests strategies to pursue and pitfalls to avoid in future reform efforts.
The report recognizes that national redistricting reform will require careful attention to content, timing, resources, research and message development as well as coalition building and public outreach.
"Building A National Redistricting Reform Movement" is available online by clicking here .
To read the full press release, click here .
On November 2, 2006, the Federal Election Commission told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that it would offer an explanation of its handling of complaints involving 527 organizations by January 31, 2007. The explanation came during a hearing in Shays and Meehan v. FEC (Shays II) - a lawsuit challenging the FEC's failure to regulate 527 groups. Legal counsel for Shays and Meehan agreed to the self-imposed deadline by the FEC. The Legal Center represents U.S. Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold in this case as amici curiae.
Previously, in an opinion and order issued by the court in March 2006, the court found that the FEC had violated the Administrative Procedures Act, reasoning that the FEC's "case-by-case adjudication [of 527 group non-compliance with campaign finance laws] appears to have been a total failure." The court in March ordered the FEC to "articulate its reasoning for its decision to proceed with case-by-case adjudication or to promulgate a rule, if necessary."
On Tuesday October 31, Associate Legal Counsel Paul S. Ryan testified before the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) at a public hearing regarding several campaign finance reform proposals being considered by the PDC. In response to record-breaking independent expenditure activity in this year's state elections, the PDC is exploring the constitutionality and desirability of: (1) prohibiting corporate and labor union treasury fund contributions and expenditures; (2) limiting contributions to non-candidate, non-party political committees, including those making independent expenditures; and (3) establishing aggregate contribution limits.
In his testimony before the PDC, Mr. Ryan detailed the longstanding federal law prohibition on corporate and labor union contributions and expenditures, limits on contributions to non-candidate, non-party committees, and aggregate contribution limits—as well as the U.S. Supreme Court decisions upholding these federal law restrictions.
Meredith McGehee, Legal Center Policy Director, met with officials from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE-ODIHR) this week. McGehee gave an overall assessment of the media environment, including the regulatory and legal implications, in the upcoming congressional elections.
Legal Center Blog Highlights
Each week, the Legal Center staff posts blog entries on its site, www.clcblog.org. Click to read this week's entries: "Redistricting a Representative Legislature," "Will Gerrymandered Districts Stem the Wave of Voter Unrest?," "Changing the Terms in the Debate in an Effort to Change the Outcome," "Web 'Widget' Will Document Voter Problems" or to sign up for blog updates, click here.
To read a variety of this week's editorials and articles on campaign finance, please click here. |
