| Subject: Electionlawblog news and commentary 5/1/06 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 5/1/2006, 7:32 AM |
| To: election-law |
The Supreme Court decided
three cases today (including the Anna Nicole Smith case argued the
same day as the Vermont campaign finance case). The next opportunity appears
to be May 15.
Roll Call offers this
report (paid subscription required). As I told my students last
week, it is hard for me to imagine any serious presidential candidate
agreeing to take matching funds in the primary season unless the rules
are changed before 2008.
Allison Hayward offers these
thoughts about recent FEC activity regarding the press exemption.
AP offers this report, which begins: "A federal judge has ruled that parts of Rhode Island's campaign finance laws regarding ballot questions are unconstitutional. In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres struck down provisions that banned corporations, including non-profit entities, from contributing money to groups advocating for or against the passage of ballot questions. The judge also eliminated a $10,000 cap on donations from individuals or groups to organizations supporting or opposing questions on the ballot." You can find the opinion here (via Rhode Island Law Blog).
The court sidestepped the question whether Austin has
overruled Bellotti on the constitutionality of limits on
expenditures in ballot measure elections. (See fn. 8 of the opinion, p.
19.)
The Dayton Daily News offers this
report, which begins: "The Ohio Elections Commission on Thursday
found that Republican U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt violated campaign law by
claiming on her Web site last year that she had two college degrees
when she had only one."
The Wall St. Journal offers this
report. For more on this strategy generally, see this
paper by Thad Kousser and Mat McCubbins.
-- 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