McCain-Feingold is Technologically Dead

The best laid plans of the Pols have yet again been placed asunder. That bipartisan effort to ‘cure’ campaign finance, BCRA, will be totally destroyed by this. BCRA puts a gag order 30 days before an election. It was generally targeted at 527 groups and other financially well healed political groups.

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So how does this kill McCain-Feingold? Its a stretch but I’ll try. The Act attempts to control content by controlling the money that funds it. Since it is the 527’s that control a bunch of that money they also control the content and the message. So patrolling the Act is but to monitor a handful of 527’s. But how does the DOJ patrol thousands of ads in hundreds of markets across the country? They can’t which is the point.

Second, even if the DOJ attempts to enforce the Act against an individual I suspect all hell is going to break loose. Should such a case come before the judiciary it will probably march right up to the Supreme Court. SCOTUS would then be in a pickle. To uphold the Act would be to abridge “…abridging the freedom of speech,…” provisions of the 1st Amendment as well as the petition of grievances thereto for an individual. To uphold the 1st Amendment would invalidate the Act. SCOTUS best course? Invalidate the Act. It should have been the first time it was on their docket.

Very exciting times.