A main question raised by the Supreme Court's decision last week in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission was this: After the high court scaled back election spending restrictions on corporations, how much would the decision impact cases in the lower courts?
A whole lot. At least that's the answer the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit appeared to offer today during oral arguments in SpeechNow.org v. FEC, a case contesting restrictions on political committees.
SpeechNow.org is an advocacy organization that supports candidates who favor slackened campaign finance rules. But it only engages in independent spending, never coordinating with parties and candidates. The case examined whether political committees, including 527 groups, like SpeechNow, should be subject to contribution limits and disclosure requirements.
Focused on money coming in rather than money going out, a key campaign finance distinction, this case might appear to be far afield the considerations of Citizens United.
But the en banc panel quickly dispelled that notion, allowing Citizens United to become the issue of the day. Before a SpeechNow.org attorney could even speak, chief judge David Sentelle brought up the elephant in the room: that the FEC, and more broadly the campaign finance reform community, suffered a major blow in Citizens United.
"Is there anything you'd like to add to Justice Kennedy's opinion?" Sentelle asked Steven Simpson, the attorney for SpeechNow.org, referring to the high-court author of last week's majority opinion.
SpeechNow.org's argument that disclosure rules should be slackened met skepticism from the court, mirroring the Supreme Court opinion to uphold disclosure requirements in Citizens United. The circuit court judges questioned Simpson on just how onerous the FEC disclosure requirements really are and whether they impose a substantial burden.
Since a SCOTUS majority wrote last week that independent spending does not threaten to give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption, the circuit court judges appeared to question whether restrictions on SpeechNow.org were warranted. The corruption argument that had played a large role in the FEC's briefs prior to the Citizens United ruling quickly seemed roadblocked. Judge Douglas Ginsburg pointed out that the Supreme Court's language vindicating independent spending "included" outlays by corporations--but was "not limited to" corporations alone.
FEC attorney David Folker appeared to change strategies, turning from corruption to circumvention and instead stressing an argument that unrestricted donations to political committees could provide a way to get around contribution limits on candidates and political party donations.
A decision is expected in several months.
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Monday, March 26, 2012
Well, I bet the Supreme Court’s Decision will have a big impact to lower courts. Even though, America is a federal government, the Supreme Court is still respected as the highest or most powerful court. Thus, even the judges of lower court will give a great weigh to decisions made by the Supreme Court.
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Focused on money coming in rather than money going out, a key campaign finance distinction, this case might appear to be far afield the considerations of Citizens Unite
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The corruption argument that had played a large role in the FEC's briefs prior to the Citizens United ruling quickly seemed roadblocked. Judge Douglas Ginsburg pointed out that the Supreme Court's language vindicating independent spending "included" outlays by corporations--but was "not limited to" corporations alone.magic secrets
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