The Washington Times reported today on a 5 to 4 Supreme Court decision to allow interest groups, unions and corporations to pay for political ads. These groups had been barred from doing this under the The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). also know as the McCain-Feingold Bill of 2002.
The interest groups will be allowed to purchase issue ads and donate money to issue groups; they would not be allowed to donate to a specific candidate.
The article points out:
"The ruling does not overturn laws limiting how much corporations and unions can contribute directly to a candidate, nor does it overturn the ban on so-called "soft money," the uncapped donations to political parties that had swamped the political process in the 1990s."
In the age of the internet, there is a much easier way to keep campaigns and candidates from buying an election. Even if a home does not have internet access, every library in the country has computers that can be used to access the internet. All Congress has to do to clean up political campaigns is legislate a requirement that all donations to a political campaign or a candidate (or an interest group or a politcal action committee) be posted on the internet at the website of the group receiving the donation within 24 hours of the receipt. This would give us true transparency and allow people to see who is supporting the candidates and issues.
The Supreme Court decision today is a positive step for the First Amendment.
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