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McCain-Feingold Update Last year, with great fanfare, Congress passed the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, touted as an end to big campaign contributions and corruption in politics. The new law went into effect on November 2, 2002, and was immediately challenged by a wide variety of groups, including English-language protection organization ProEnglish, as unconstitutional. A special federal court panel in Washington, D.C., was convened to hear the constitutional challenge. On May 1, the three judges handed down a 1,600 page decision, with a separate opinion by each judge and a joint opinion by two judges. The decision includes a 15-page spreadsheet explaining how the judges ruled on each section of the massive new law. Some sections of the new law were upheld and others struck down. But the entire decision was then put on hold when the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would review the case in a special session this summer. Usually the Supreme Court takes the summer off, but this year it will spend a substantial amount of time considering the thorny free speech issues raised by the restrictions on campaign fundraising, spending, and advertising. A decision is expected this fall. 
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The
ELPAC Report