But Kennedy and the high court majority were wrong. Because of loopholes in tax laws and a weak enforcement policy at the Federal Election Commission, corporations and wealthy donors have been able to spend huge sums on campaign ads, confident the public will not know who they are, election law experts say.
Corporate donors have been able to hide their contributions despite the opposition of shareholders and customers — the very groups cited by Kennedy.
Here are the questions presented to the Justices:
QUESTIONS PRESENTED:
1. Whether all as-applied challenges to the disclosure requirements (reporting and
disclaimers) imposed on "electioneering communications" by the Bipartisan
Campaign Reform Act of 2002 ("BCRA") were resolved by McConnell’s statement
that it was upholding the disclosure requirements against facial challenge “for the
entire range of electioneering communications' set forth in the statute." Mem. Op. I,
App. 15a (quoting McConnell v. FEC, 540 U.S. 93, 196 (200)).
2. Whether BCRA's disclosure requirements impose an unconstitutional burden
when applied to electioneering communications protected from prohibition by the
appeal-to-vote test, FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, 127 S. Ct. 2652, 2667 (2007)
("WRTL II”), because such communications are protected "political speech," not
regulable “campaign speech,” id. at 2659, in that they are not "unambiguously
related to the campaign of a particular federal candidate," Buckley v. Valeo, 424
U.S. 1, 80 (1976), or because the disclosure requirements fail strict scrutiny when
so applied.
3. Whether WRTL II’s appeal-to-vote test requires a clear plea for action to vote
for or against a candidate, so that a communication lacking such a clear plea for
action is not subject to the electioneering communication prohibition. 2 U.S.C. §
441b.
4. Whether a broadcast feature-length documentary movie that is sold on DVD,
shown in theaters, and accompanied by a compendium book is to be treated as the
broadcast "ads" at issue in McConnell, 540 U.S. at 126, or whether the movie is not
subject to regulation as an electioneering communication.
Here are the some keywords and links to make sure this message gets back to the Justices, of course, via the clerks:
Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito, Elena Kagan. Clarence Thomas,Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Here are the some keywords and links to make sure this message gets back to the Justices, of course, via the clerks:
Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito, Elena Kagan. Clarence Thomas,Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg