Constitutional amendment or violation?

ATLANTA: The Southeastern Legal Foundation today warned lawmakers that, if current campaign finance 'reform' proposals which limit free speech and independent spending pass, the constitutional law firm will challenge the constitutionality of the proposals in federal court.

The Foundation, which won a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning the use of statistical sampling for apportionment following the 2000 Census, promised "a decisive action in the third branch of government if the second branch poaches on protected constitutional grounds," said Lynn Hogue, SLF President. "Reasonable contribution limits are one thing, but banning public speech before elections and limiting the amount that candidates and individuals may spend to voice their political perspectives is quite another."

Hogue points out that "Congress starts to talk about amending the Constitution when they know their ideas are in trouble. The First Amendment has withstood efforts to tamper with it for decades, and it will withstand Hollings and Wellstone. Campaign finance 'reform' is no place to start. Political speech is the most protected form of speech under the First Amendment. If necessary, we will fight to protect it against savaging by the campaign finance 'reformers.'"

"The Wellstone amendment, which passed with surprising numbers last night, also does damage to free speech by banning protected political speech by private groups before a campaign," said Hogue. "That provision is extraordinarily vulnerable to constitutional attack."

"When the battle lines are drawn between McCain-Feingold, who believe their proposals are constitutional when some elements are clearly not, and a group of Senators who believe they must amend the Constitution to enable them to act, the time is near for the reasoned heads of our federal courts to scrutinize the issues," said Hogue. "We are prepared to move on those issues. Individual rights can't afford the wait."

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