On March 29, a U.S. District Court in North Carolina ruled that several North Carolina campaign finance laws are unconstitutional. North Carolina Right to Life v Leake, 5:99-cv-798, e.d.

The Court struck down a law that required North Carolina Right to Life to register as a “campaign committee,” because it is a corporation and the state felt that it was spending money to support or oppose the nomination or election of one or more clearly identified candidates. NCRTL argued that its expenditures were not for the purpose of supporting or opposing any specific candidate; instead NCRTL said its advertising was to advocate its own ideas. The Court found the North Carolina law to be unconstitutionally vague. The state law said that speech should be judged by its “essential nature” and made reference to whether a “reasonable person” would think the speech either did, or did not, advocate voting in a particular way.

The Court also struck another part of the definition of “campaign committee”, that it be deemed to have the purpose of being a campaign committee if it spent more than $3,000 in political advertising during an election cycle.

The Washington Post of April 2 carried an article titled, “The Decoy Effect, or How to Win an Election.” The article quotes Scott Highhouse, who has studied the “decoy effect” at Bowling Green State University, saying “Research on the decoy effect suggests that Nader’s presence (in 2000), rather than taking votes away, probably increased the share of votes for the candidate he most resembled.”

Thanks to Taegan Goddard for pointing out the article, which can be seen here.

On Saturday, March 31, the Montana House passed SB 270 with only 5 “no” votes. It moves the petition deadline for independent candidates (for office other than president) from June to March.