Dems close to crippling 1st amendment with union favoring ‘DISCLOSE’ Act

June 22, 2010 08:34


House Democrats now claim to be “within striking distance” of the votes they need to sharply restrict the rights of organizations to participate in election campaigns — despite a recent Supreme Court finding that such legislative restrictions are unconstitutional.

By: David A. Patten at Newsmax.com

Democrats ‘Within Striking Distance’ on Disclose Act

House Democrats now claim to be “within striking distance” of the votes they need to sharply restrict the rights of organizations to participate in election campaigns — despite a recent Supreme Court finding that such legislative restrictions are unconstitutional.

Heritage Foundation legal scholar Hans A. Von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, tells Newsmax that the timing of the legislation indicates its true purpose is muzzling groups that otherwise might freely voice their opposition to Democratic policies in campaign ads.

The Disclose Act, also known as H.R. 5175, is written so that it takes effect 30 days after passage — just in time to impact the November midterms.

“That’s just crazy,” Von Spakovsky tells Newsmax, “because whenever a new statute gets passed on campaign finance reform, the FEC has the job of creating the regulations needed to implement the statute. There is just no way the FEC, which I served on for two years, could in two months come up with regulations to enforce this law.”

Instead, he says, Democrats “just seem to be intent on creating a legal morass,” the uncertainty of which would discourage organizations from trying to voice their views at all.

Former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley A. Smith, chairman of the Alexandria, Va.-based Center for Competitive Politics, recently told Newsmax the Act is “one of the most partisan pieces of legislation to come down the pike.”

FULL STORY

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