message from Trevor Potter: McConnell v. FEC Witness Testimony
 Now Online
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Trevor Potter sent me the following details on CAMLC's database of 
witness testimony documents in the McConnell case:

McConnell v. FEC Witness Testimony Now Online
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 The witness testimony in McConnell v. FEC, the case testing the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, is now available on the Campaign and Media Legal Centers website for public review. These statements were submitted to the c
ourt recently by the defendants and plaintiffs in this case. The statements come from some of the countrys best known political party officials, Members of Congress, and political scientists, as well as other experts in the field.

Statements submitted by all parties, with the exception of a few declarations marked confidential, can be found at www.camlc.org.  Then, click on McConnell v. FEC Witness Testimony. The website has a full list of the witnesses called by the two sides in
 the litigation, as well copies of their statements. Additionally, summaries prepared by Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 (a counsel in the case for the Intervening Congressional Sponsors) of some of the statements are also available on the website.

Because the case will be a paper trial, all testimony is being offered in the form of a) expert reports, and b) fact witness affidavits, rather than live testimony. In litigation of this kind, expert witnesses testify as to a technical matter within t
heir area of professional expertise in order to shed light on that issue for the finder of fact  in this case, the three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  Thus, parties on both sides of the case have submitted, for exa
mple, the professional opinions of experts on the effect on soft money on our political processes.

Fact witnesses testify as to matters within their own experience and observation.  Parties on both sides of the case have submitted declarations from, for example, former politicians and ordinary voters who will testify as to their personal experiences 
as political actors in a system awash in soft money.

Depositions and cross examinations of witnesses in the case are ongoing, and copies of those transcripts are not yet available to the public.