Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn two of its decisions on campaign finance law.
The Kentucky Republican filed his brief in a pending -- and closely watched -- case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
The case originated as a challenge to federal restrictions on the video-on-demand distribution, during the 2008 presidential primary season, of a 90-minute documentary that was very critical of Hillary Rodham Clinton. The court on June 29 took the unusal step of ordering a rehearing of the case in September, specifically on two questions.
When the court convenes on Sept. 9 -- with newly minted Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the bench -- it will hear arguments as to whether it should overturn its 1990 decision in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce that upheld a Michigan campaign finance law barring corporations from spending money directly on political campaigns, and whether it should overturn the part of its 2003 decision in McConnell v. FEC that upheld restrictions in the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law on corporate and labor spending on "electioneering communications."
In his brief, McConnell argues that both McConnell v. FEC -- which grew out of his challenge to the 2002 law -- and Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce should be overturned.
![[RSS]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/rss_icon.gif){kind=icon}
![[ARCHIVES]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/archives_icon.png){kind=icon}
Post A Comment