KillerMuffin
Seraphically Disinclined
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2000
- Posts
- 25,603
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=politicsnews&StoryID=930733
By John Whitesides
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Party, the California Democratic Party and a coalition of voters' rights groups filed separate legal challenges on Tuesday to a new campaign finance law designed to restrict the influence of money in politics.
[snip]
Meeting a court-imposed deadline to add their lawsuits to challenges already filed by more than two dozen groups, the new plaintiffs said the measure violated the Constitution's guarantees of free speech and equal protection.
[snip]
The lawsuit by voters' rights groups challenges the law's increase in limits for regulated "hard-money" donations, which can be spent directly on campaigns, claiming it violates the Constitution's equal protection clause by denying meaningful participation in the political process to Americans who are not wealthy.
The law doubles the cap on individual contributions to $2,000 and indexes further increases to inflation. "Doubling the hard-money limits will further drown out the voice of average, non-wealthy citizens," said Adam Lioz of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
[snip]
The Republican complaint also alleges the law overrides the authority of states to regulate the financing of state and local elections. Republican plaintiffs are the Republican National Committee, the state parties of Colorado, New Mexico and Ohio, and the Dallas County, Iowa, Republican committee.
Among the voters' rights groups challenging the hard-money increase are the National Voting Rights Institute, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and nearly a dozen individual voters or prospective candidates.
Their challenge also takes aim at the so-called millionaire's amendment added during Senate debate last year that grants an increase in contribution limits to candidates facing wealthy, self-financed opponents.
Stephanie Wilson, director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project, a civil rights group advocating campaign finance reform, likened the hard-money limit increases to "a modern-day poll tax" that would hinder political participation by the poor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you think?
By John Whitesides
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Party, the California Democratic Party and a coalition of voters' rights groups filed separate legal challenges on Tuesday to a new campaign finance law designed to restrict the influence of money in politics.
[snip]
Meeting a court-imposed deadline to add their lawsuits to challenges already filed by more than two dozen groups, the new plaintiffs said the measure violated the Constitution's guarantees of free speech and equal protection.
[snip]
The lawsuit by voters' rights groups challenges the law's increase in limits for regulated "hard-money" donations, which can be spent directly on campaigns, claiming it violates the Constitution's equal protection clause by denying meaningful participation in the political process to Americans who are not wealthy.
The law doubles the cap on individual contributions to $2,000 and indexes further increases to inflation. "Doubling the hard-money limits will further drown out the voice of average, non-wealthy citizens," said Adam Lioz of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
[snip]
The Republican complaint also alleges the law overrides the authority of states to regulate the financing of state and local elections. Republican plaintiffs are the Republican National Committee, the state parties of Colorado, New Mexico and Ohio, and the Dallas County, Iowa, Republican committee.
Among the voters' rights groups challenging the hard-money increase are the National Voting Rights Institute, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and nearly a dozen individual voters or prospective candidates.
Their challenge also takes aim at the so-called millionaire's amendment added during Senate debate last year that grants an increase in contribution limits to candidates facing wealthy, self-financed opponents.
Stephanie Wilson, director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project, a civil rights group advocating campaign finance reform, likened the hard-money limit increases to "a modern-day poll tax" that would hinder political participation by the poor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you think?