{"ID":55412,"name":"Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc.","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/cases\/2006\/06-969","view_count":0,"docket_number":"06-969","additional_docket_numbers":["06-970"],"manner_of_jurisdiction":"Appeal","first_party":"Federal Election Commission","second_party":"Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc.","timeline":[{"event":"Argued","dates":[1177477200],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/39749"},{"event":"Decided","dates":[1182747600],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/39750"}],"lower_court":{"ID":146,"name":"Federal district court","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/courts\/federal_district_court"},"facts_of_the_case":"\u003Cp\u003EWisconsin Right to Life (WRTL), a nonprofit political advocacy corporation, ran three advertisements encouraging viewers to contact two U.S. Senators and tell them to oppose filibusters of judicial nominees. WRTL intended to keep running the ads through the 2004 election, but the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) prohibits corporate funds from being used for certain political advertisements in the 60-day period prior to an election. WRTL sued the Federal Election Commission (FEC), claiming that the BCRA was unconstitutional as applied to the advertisements. In 2006, the Supreme Court let the \u0022as applied\u0022 challenge proceed (see \u003Cem\u003EWisconsin Right to Life v. Federal Election Commission\u003C\/em\u003E, 04-1581). In \u003Cem\u003EMcConnell v. Federal Election Commission\u003C\/em\u003E, the Court had upheld Congress\u0027s power to regulate \u0022express advocacy\u0022 ads that support or oppose political candidates, but WRTL claimed that its ads were \u0022issue ads\u0022 rather than express advocacy. WRTL also argued that the government lacked a compelling interest sufficient to override the corporation\u0027s First Amendment free speech interest. The FEC countered that WRTL\u0027s ads were \u0022sham issue ads,\u0022 which refrain from explicitly endorsing or opposing a candidate but are intended to affect an election.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EA three-judge District Court agreed with WRTL\u0027s arguments and ruled the BCRA unconstitutional as applied to the ads. The court refused the FEC\u0027s request that it inquire into the intent and likely effect of the ads, because those determinations would be impractical and would have a chilling effect on protected speech. Analyzing only the explicit content of the ads, the court found them to be legitimate issue ads and not express advocacy or sham issue ads. The court also held that the government\u0027s justification for banning express advocacy ads by corporations - the need to reduce political corruption and public cynicism - did not apply to ads that do not endorse or oppose a candidate. Therefore, the court ruled that the government lacked a compelling interest to justify the burden on WRTL\u0027s First Amendment rights.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","question":"\u003Cp\u003EIs the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act\u0027s ban on the use of corporate treasury funds for political advertisements in the 60 days before an election unconstitutional as applied to advertisements that do not explicitly endorse or oppose a candidate?\u003C\/p\u003E\n","conclusion":"\u003Cp\u003EYes. By a 5-4 vote the Court ruled that BCRA\u0027s limitations on political advertising were unconstitutional as they applied to issue ads like WRTL\u0027s. Chief Justice John Roberts\u0027s majority opinion held that the ads were genuine issue ads, not express political advocacy or its functional equivalent (which Congress can concededly regulate). The Court held that \u003Cem\u003EMcConnell v. FEC\u003C\/em\u003E did not establish the test that any ad intended to influence an election and having that effect is express advocacy. Such a test would be open-ended and burdensome, would lead to bizarre results, and would \u0022unquestionably chill a substantial amount of political speech.\u0022 Instead, the Court adopted the test that \u0022an ad is the functional equivalent of express advocacy only if the ad is susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate.\u0022 The Court further held that the compelling state interests invoked by the government to regulate advocacy did not apply with equal force to genuine issue ads. Neither the interest in preventing corruption nor the goal of limiting the distorting effects of corporate wealth was sufficient to override the right of a corporation to speak through ads on public issues. This conclusion, the Court held, was necessary in order to \u0022give the benefit of the doubt to speech, not censorship.\u0022 The dissent by Justice Souter called WRTL\u0027s ads indistinguishable from political advocacy ads and accused the majority of implicitly overruling \u003Cem\u003EMcConnell v. FEC\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","advocates":[{"advocate":{"ID":37772,"name":"Paul D. Clement","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/people\/paul_d_clement","view_count":0,"last_name":"Clement","roles":null,"thumbnail":null,"length_of_service":0,"identifier":"paul_d_clement"},"advocate_description":"","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_advocate\/case_advocate\/19381"},{"advocate":{"ID":42213,"name":"Seth P. 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