Tuesday, February 23, 2016 

With the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the prospect of an extended nomination fight in the Senate, our speakers previewed some of the potential impacts of the vacancy on pending money in politics cases. We also discussed a case out of Louisiana which may become the next opportunity for the Supreme Court to consider campaign finance regulation. Brought by the Louisiana GOP, this case involves a challenge to McCain-Feingold’s soft money ban as applied to state parties under the Federal Elections Campaign Act (FECA). If successful the case could, in the words of the federal judge who issued the opinion, “render largely meaningless FECA’s limits on contributions to state- and local-party committees.”

Moderated by Sarah Knight, FCCP’s Money in Politics Working Group Co-chair

Speakers:

• Marge Baker, Executive Vice President of People for the American Way
• Tara Malloy, Deputy Executive Director of the Campaign Legal Center