The Supreme Court has issued its long-awaited decision in the election law case Citizens United [PDF], to which Ellen has... View Article
Continue readingReflections on Election Laws
Bob Bauer, political campaign attorney who invented the legal justification for "soft money" and now council to the Obama campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, authors the Web site More Soft Money Hard Law on the side. Late last week, Bauer posted a transcript of comments he gave to a panel of the American Constitutional Society on the topic of "Can Campaign Finance Reform Actually Work?" In his comments titled "Enforcement Expectations and Hard Calls," Bauer writes that we should temper our expectations about campaign law by what we want enforced. "On the basics," Bauer writes, "the law has been plentifully enforced." But hard issues exist in election law, and "tough calls" inherently exist. He warns against putting too much expectation on the law, and to strive to reach "comprehensible and rationally administrable" regulations. As an example, he praises the Federal Election Commission for adopting broad exemptions of campaign finance laws regarding blogging and other Internet uses for campaign-related purposes.The FEC wrote rules that places Internet activities within the media exemption, activity that should largely be free of regulation, he argues.
Continue readingToday, Follow the Oil Money
This would be the day to check out the work of Oil Change International. Specifically, their Follow the Oil Money project.
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