US Supreme Court Opens Campaign Law to Challenges

By Linda Greenhouse
NY Times

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 - The Supreme Court, ruling on Monday in an important campaign finance case, opened the door to a new round of legal challenges to the limits Congress placed four years ago on election advertisements paid for by corporations and broadcast during the weeks before federal elections.

The court's opinion was surprising, coming only six days after the argument. It was unsigned, barely two pages long and unanimous.

It may, however, have considerable impact, given that two years ago the court itself appeared to foreclose further challenges to the "electioneering communications" part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. The court upheld the law, usually called McCain-Feingold after its Senate sponsors, in a 5-to-4 decision that considered multiple free-speech challenges to the statute "on its face" rather than in particular applications.

The court ruled on Monday that both the government and a special three-judge Federal District Court here had misinterpreted its earlier decision as foreclosing future challenges to the advertising restrictions as they applied to particular advertisements or corporate sponsors.

More at the NY Times.