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Friday, December 30, 2011

Politics / Money Federal Court Invalidates WA Ban on Large, Last Minute PAC Donations

Posted by Goldy on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 8:00 AM

The courts rule once again that money has more free speech rights than actual speech:

Washington state cannot prohibit individuals from making large donations to certain political action committees in the weeks leading up to a general election, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit invalidated a Washington state law that prevented individuals from contributing more than $5,000 to PACs supporting ballot measures during the three weeks before a vote. At the same time, the court upheld two other Washington laws that require political action committees to disclose information on donors who give more than $25 and $100.

Of course, the whole disclosure thing is kinda meaningless if the disclosure doesn't come until after the election, which is exactly what would happen with these large, last minute contributions the court has now allowed. You know, just the way the rich people like it.

Comments (4) RSS

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No, it's a good ruling. It upheld the requirement to disclose the name and employer of every donor, which the PAC had asked be overturned. As to the time limit the court found -- accurately, in my view -- that the way the law was written, a 21 day cutoff was unrealistically severe in light of advances in the speed with which public disclosure of campaign contributions are taking place. The legislature can and should rewrite that to be constitutional.

Posted by gloomy gus on December 30, 2011 at 8:13 AM

just ban political radio and tv advertising. or lying. either way.

Posted by Max Solomon on December 30, 2011 at 8:52 AM

But didn't the Lord bless us all with Free Will so that we might act according to his Writ and the dictates of our Conscience?

I mean, fuck neuroscientists and their "facts" about "decision-making," right? We all have Free Will so there's absolutely no way that outspending on advertising in an election is the same as buying an election result. No sir. Not even if the advertising is frequently misleading, outright untrue, or even arguably libelous. Nope. FREE WILL.

Posted by balderdash

on December 30, 2011 at 2:26 PM

We can live with this if (big if) the public disclosure is easy to find and almost instantaneous with SEVERE penalties for failure. Felony level penalties and painfully high fines (10x donation size?) would be OK by me. Maybe throw in a Voter Fraud tattoo across the forehead (may be kidding about that last one).

Posted by david on December 30, 2011 at 11:34 PM