NVRI E-News: September 27, 2005


U. S. SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW CAMPAIGN SPENDING LIMITS

COURT TO CONSIDER EVIDENCE THAT UNLIMITED CAMPAIGN FUNDRAISING FOSTERS CORRUPTION, MONOPOLIZES CANDIDATES� TIME

Dear Friends,

For a decade, NVRI has been working to bring the Supreme Court's Buckley v. Valeo decision back to the Supreme Court. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the constitutionality of Vermont�s limits on campaign spending, setting the stage for a possible sea change in the way American political campaigns are financed. The case will give the Court its first opportunity in nearly 30 years to revisit its 1976 decision in Buckley v. Valeo, which struck down congressional spending limits on First Amendment grounds.

"This case is about law catching up with political reality," said Brenda Wright, managing attorney for the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI) and lead counsel for the Vermont groups defending the state�s limits. "When Buckley was decided, the cost of campaigns was relatively modest. Thirty years later, it�s clear the fundraising arms race has turned our officeholders into full-time fundraisers and undermined the public's faith in government. We hope this case will allow states to protect the integrity of their elections through reasonable limits on campaign spending."

To read the entire press release, see the attachment.

To read more about the Vermont litigation, click here.

To read about all of NVRI's work on spending limits and our challenge to
Buckley v. Valeo, click here.

Best,
Stu

Stuart Comstock-Gay
Executive Director
National Voting Rights Institute
www.nvri.org