| Subject: news of the day 8/25/05 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 8/25/2005, 7:04 AM |
| To: election-law |
See this
editorial from the Grand Rapids Press. Thanks to Jeff Wice
for the pointer.
I was reminded of Jim Gardner's wonderful article with that title
when I read this
article from Florida, which begins: "After deciding to readdress
single-member districts, Kissimmee city commissioners have been advised
not to talk about the topic because of a pending federal lawsuit. "
Yesterday Senator Alren Specter, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, sent this letter to Judge Roberts indicating that Senator Specter intended to ask Judge Roberts about his views on the Supreme Court's recent federalism case, Tennessee v. Lane. I have just sent this letter to Senator Specter and ranking minority member Senator Patrick Leahy calling to their attention the fact that the vitality of Tennessee v. Lane is very relevant to the question of congressional power to uphold a renewed section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The letter notes that Judge Roberts' past writings on the Voting Rights Act give special reason for concern that he would not follow Justice O'Connor's position in Tennessee v. Lane as precedent for upholding a renewed section 5.
I urge the senators to explore this topic with Judge Roberts at the
hearing, as well as the topic of campaign finance regulation. Justice
O'Connor recently has cast decisive votes in this area as well.
Don't miss this post by Adam Bonin at Daily Kos.
With the expiration of terms of four commissioners at the FEC, we will be seeing essentially a new FEC considering this issue when the Advisory Opinion eventually issues.
I'll have more to say about this at a later date, but I think this AO request is a good thing all around. I have been telling reporters that I expect the FEC, as part of its Internet rulemaking, to issue no rules or unclear rules related to which corporate-owned blogs will be entitled to the press exemption (or another exemption). Without clear guidance from the FEC, it seems inevitable that someone will file a complaint against a corporate owned blogger engaged in express advocacy during the 2006 elections. That prospect alone could seriously chill free speech.
An AO from the FEC will be the first step toward clarifying the
rules related to political blogging for 06 and 08. I expect that this
issue will ultimately be resolved by the courts. It is also possible it
will be resolved by Congress, as I would expect Congress to create a
pretty wide Internet exemption by statute if it passes any other
campaign finance bills this term.
Don't miss this very
interesting piece by John Samples in the American Spectator
on departing FEC commissioner Brad Smith.
You can find the relevant portion of the report at
this link.
-- Rick Hasen William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law Loyola Law School 919 Albany Street Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211 (213)736-1466 (213)380-3769 - fax rick.hasen@lls.edu http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html http://electionlawblog.org