Go get ‘em ACLU — Election laws ARE an affront to the First Amendment
Posted on September 1, 2006
I don’t have the complete facts on this case, but it seems as though the ACLU is in the right here.
It seems that a Florida woman decided to put out a small newsletter that electionista bureacrats deemed to be “electioneering communication.” Though the election commissioners determined, in effect, that they’d “let this one go,” and in their boundless benevolence decided they would not shut the publication down, they made clear that they’d be watching…
From the Tallahassee Democrat: ACLU sues to help Wakulla woman
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in a Tallahassee federal court on Thursday on behalf of a Wakulla County businesswoman who claims she was forced by the Florida Elections Commission to halt publication of her small-town newspaper.
The six-page suit filed on behalf of Julia Hanway names Elections Commission Executive Director Barbara Linthicum as a defendant and asks the court to reverse the commission’s decision that the Wakulla Independent Reporter is an ”electioneering communication” subject to campaign finance disclosure laws.
”This action challenges whether the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the FEC from regulating newspapers,” the suit states.
Linthicum declined comment, saying she had yet to see the lawsuit.
The FEC investigated Hanway after a Panacea resident complained that the four-page broadsheet, which includes book reviews, nature photographs, and community news, was a political arm of ”anti-growth” candidates.
The commission found no violation of election laws, but an investigator’s report warned Hanway that she would have to register with election officials and file campaign finance disclosures in the future.
So this is where we are. Someone just doesn’t like the message, they loose the government on you. Many on-the-books campaign and election laws are unconstitutional outrages that inevitably lead to abuses. This, along with his love for amnestia, is exactly why John McCain will NEVER get the GOP nomination for president.
ACLU of Florida Legal Director Randall Marshall said the group decided to pursue the case because of the threat it poses to free speech.
”The notion that the elections commission is going to categorize this newspaper as an electioneering document is simply dangerous,” Marshall said.
The case has caught the attention of the national Institute for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian group that fights government regulations in court. Institute attorneys are waging a similar battle in the Washington State Supreme Court, where state election officials are seeking to regulate a radio talk show.
Election law regulators got involved when the program hosts supported a controversial petition drive to repeal a local tax, said Steve Simpson, the group’s senior attorney. ”We’re talking pure political speech,” Simpson said.
Simpson said the group has been following Hanway’s case closely and plans to file a friend of the court brief on her behalf later in the proceedings.
”People don’t realize that campaign finance laws effect much more than just the large political parties,” Simpson said. ”There’s a darker side.”
Exactly. I would add another ugly bit to the mix. Americans United for Separation of Church and State and other like groups have launched a misinformation campaign targeting churches (beginning in 2004, but going strong, especially in South Dakota this year), complete with threats of IRS investigation, should pastors speak about moral issues (marriage, abortion, cloning, ESCR, etc.) that happen also to now be ballot issues or if certain political candidates hold one view or the other. Funny that AU seems to have targeted only certain types of churches…
Situations like these truly imperil our First Amendment rights. Peaceful political discourse should be wide open and not subject to the ridiculous limits and regulations currently in place. I would go so far as to say that there should be very little regulation on campaign donations as long as each campaign’s books are open to the public. The ACLU is right in this case and should also make it a point to come out publicly against the ongoing fear campaign by Americans United.
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I do not see the problem with revealing the funding beyond your publication “election communication” or not. Please explain how that hurts anyone except causing more paperwork for the bureaucrats to process.