Cases
SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission
Protecting Americans’ Rights to Organize and Speak About Politics
 |
||
|
SpeechNow.org President David Keating and IJ Senior Attorney Steve Simpson |
||
Represented by the Institute for Justice and the Center for Competitive Politics, SpeechNow.org and its members and supporters brought a First Amendment challenge in February 2008 to federal campaign-finance laws that require the group to organize, register, and report as a “political committee” in order to advocate for or against candidates. These are the same restrictions that the U.S. Supreme Court said were too burdensome for a corporation to have to deal with.
To add insult to injury, the federal campaign finance laws prohibited individuals from giving more than $ 5,000 to a political committee. That means that while Bill Gates one his own could spend as much of his money as he wanted on political speech, he could contribute only $ 5,000 to a similar group effort. But since the First Amendment guarantees individuals the right to speak without limit, it should be common sense that groups of individuals have the same rights. It turns out that these limits and red tape made it virtually impossible for new independent citizen groups to raise start-up funding and effectively reach voters.
More than two years after SpeechNow.org first filed suit, the entire Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the federal government could not restrict how much individuals gave to SpeechNow.org. This ruling was the first time a federal court had implemented the Citizens United decision, and its effect was to free the speech of innumerable groups. But while SpeechNow.org prevailed on its challenge to the contribution limits, the Court unfortunately held that the government could make it jump through the difficult hoops of operating a political committee—hoops that the U.S. Supreme Court had just said in Citizens United were too burdensome for a corporation like General Motors. SpeechNow.org and the individual Plaintiffs are currently weighing their options and may ask the high court to review the D.C. Circuit’s decision in the upcoming weeks.
(July 23, 2010)
Economic Liberty
Free the Monks and Free Enterprise: Challenging Louisiana’s Casket Cartel in Federal Court
First Amendment
IJ Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Protect Free Speech: Strike Down AZ Taxpayer-Financed Campaign System
Economic Liberty
IJ Launches "The Power of One Entrepreneur" Series
IJ NEWS
IJ receives 4 star rating from Charity Navigator ninth year in a row
