McConnell v. Federal Election Commission

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McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 540 U.S. 93 (2003)^{[#endnote_citation]}, is a case in which the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of most of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

The case takes its name from Mitch McConnell, a Republican United States Senator from Kentucky, and the Federal Election Commission, the federal agency that oversees U.S. campaign finance laws.

Contents

0.1 History

1 Oral arguments
2 Opinions

2.1 External links

History

The case was brought by groups such as the California State Democratic Party and the National Rifle Association, and individuals including U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Whip, who argued that the legislation was an unconstitutional infringement on their First Amendment rights. Senator McConnell had been a longterm opponent of BCRA in the Senate due to his issues with its constitutional merits, and had led several Senate "fillibusters" to block its passage.

In June 2003, the D.C. Court of Appeals issued a ruling on whether the law was constitutional. That ruling never took effect, as the case was immediately appealed to the Supreme Court.

Oral arguments

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a special session on September 8, 2003. On Wednesday, December 10, 2003, it issued a complicated decision [link], totaling 300 pages in length, that with a 5-4 majority upheld the key provisions of McCain-Feingold.

Opinions

Justice Breyer, Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, and Ginsburg established the majority for two parts of the Court's opinion:

With respect to Titles I and II of the BCRA, Justices Stevens, O'Connor wrote the opinion of the Court.
With respect to Title V of the BCRA, Justice Breyer wrote the Court's opinion.

Two dissenting opinions were included in the decision:

Justice Stevens, joined by Justices Ginsburg, and Breyer, dissented on one section of the part of the Court's opinion written by the Chief Justice.
The Chief Justice, joined by Justice Kennedy and Scalia, issued a 15-page dissent against the Court's opinion with respect to Titles I and V of the BCRA.

Three other justices wrote separate opinions on the decision:

Justice Kennedy, joined by the Chief Justice, issued a 68-page opinion and appendix, noting that BCRA forces "speakers to abandon their own preference for speaking through parties and organizations."
Justice Thomas issued a separate 25-page opinion noting that the Court was upholding the "most significant abridgment of the freedoms of speech and association since the Civil War."
Justice Scalia issued a separate 19-page opinion, a "few words of [his] own," because of the "extraordinary importance" of the cases.

External links

↑ [Text of decision from Findlaw.com]

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