ATR Applauds Supreme Court Ruling Siding with Free Speech
Decision is good step toward restoring First Amendment Rights
Washington, DC- Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist applauded today’s Supreme Court decision that restores some of the free speech rights that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law stripped away from Americans.
The 5-4 decision once again allows issue advocacy ads by third party groups within 30 day of a primary and 60 days before a general election.
“Free speech is making a comeback, thankfully.” said Norquist. “While we would’ve preferred the entire bill be thrown out as the clear violation of the First Amendment that is it, the court did loosen the gag, which is a good thing.”
The case, McCain v. Wisconsin Right to Life, was closely watched as it worked its way through the courts. Before today, groups that wanted to run ads educating the public on the position of the Members of Congress on issues important to those groups were not allowed to do so unless they were a registered political action committee or a 527 group.
“This means the monsters this bill created will no longer be the only ones allowed to exercise their Constitutional right to free speech,” Norquist continued. “This levels the playing field and allows for the open dialog our Founding Fathers intended the First Amendment to protect.”