From Left to Right: Adam Lioz of U.S. PIRG, John Bonifaz and Bonnie Tenneriello of NVRI, and Derek Cressman of U.S. PIRG outside the U.S. Supreme Court during arguments regarding the BiPartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. Photo Courtesy of Rick Trilsch, U.S. PIRG

NVRI’s constitutional challenge to the hard money increases in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (otherwise known as the McCain-Feingold law) is currently pending before the United States Supreme Court. On September 8, 2003, the Supreme Court held a special four-hour argument on various challenges to the McCain-Feingold law, though the high court denied oral argument time to the Adams plaintiffs. While it is unfortunate that the Court did not hear any arguments regarding the hard money increases or, therefore, any arguments focused on the equal protection rights of the non-wealthy in this consolidated litigation, we are proud of the presentation of those arguments in our written briefs before the Court. We are also very appreciative of the amicus brief filed by Public Campaign before the Court in support of the Adams plaintiffs’ claims.

As we have previously highlighted, hard money accounts for more than 70 percent of the funds raised by federal candidates and parties and comes predominantly from the wealthiest one percent of the nation’s population. A number of news organizations have recently reported that candidates for federal office in 2004 with networks of wealthy donors are raising millions of more hard money dollars as a result of the hard money increases in the new law.

In addition to this challenge to the hard money increases, the organizational plaintiffs in the Adams v. FEC case, joined by the Public Campaign, filed an amici brief in support of the soft money restrictions in the McCain-Feingold law.

Copies of the Adams plaintiffs’ briefs and these friend-of-the-court briefs can be found in the legal library of our website: www.nvri.org.

National Voting Rights Institute, 27 School Street, Suite 500, Boston, MA 02108
Phone: (617) 624-3900  ¤  Fax: (617) 624-3911  ¤  www.nvri.org  ¤  nvri@nvri.org