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Saturday Schedule
Program
Annual
Meeting
Home
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Saturday, January 4, 2003
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4:00-5:45 p.m.
Section on Legislation
Jane S. Schacter, University of Wisconsin, Chair |
Virginia Suite B
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
Lobby Level |
Campaign Finance Reform, Congress and the Constitution
Moderator:
Richard Briffault, Columbia University
Speakers:
- Erwin Chemerinsky, University of Southern California
- Michael J. Malbin, Professor, Department of Political Science, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York, and Executive Director, The Campaign Finance Institute, Washington, D.C.
- Robert F. Schiff, Democratic Chief Counsel, Subcommittee on the Constitution, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, D.C.
- Geoffrey R. Stone, The University of Chicago
On March 27, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002-popularly known as McCain-Feingold--into law. The culmination of a protracted six-year legislative and political struggle, McCain-Feingold is one of the most important laws produced by the 107th Congress and the most significant change in federal campaign finance law in three decades. The new law addresses a wide range of campaign finance issues, but its central provisions impose new and restrictive regulations on the two phenomena that have dominated the campaign finance debate for more than a decade-political party soft money and issue advocacy.
Enacted in the teeth of fierce political resistance, including the opposition of the leadership of the House of Representatives, the passage of McCain-Feingold is a case study on the contemporary legislative process. Moreover, in affecting the ways legislators, political parties, and interest groups raise and spend campaign money, the new law is likely to have an impact on the political process for years to come. That assumes, or course, that the law holds up in court. The new limitations on campaign fundraising and expenditures raise serious First Amendment questions. Lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the new law were filed before the ink on the President's signature was dry. The challenges are currently pending before a three-judge court, with ultimate action by the Supreme Court likely.
This program examines the legislative process that culminated in the passage of McCain-Feingold; the implications of its soft money and issue advocacy provisions for electoral politics; and the constitutional questions posed by those provisions.
Business Meeting at Program Conclusion
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