On December 21, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ruled that the McCain-Feingold law is unconstitutional when it is applied in certain situations. The case is Wisconsin Right to Life v FEC, civ 04-1260. The vote was 2-1.

In this particular case, the McCain-Feingold law made it illegal for Wisconsin Right to Life, a corporation, to run broadcast ads (paid for out of its Corporate treasury) within 60 days of an election if that ad mentions a candidate for Congress.

In this instance, the ad Wisconsin Right to Life wanted to run merely asked listeners to ask both their U.S. Senators to oppose any filibuster of any judicial nominees. The ad made no mention of the fact that one of Wisconsin’s U.S. Senators was running for re-election.

Judges Richard Leon and David Sentelle signed the majority opinion. They said this particular ad clearly is not a campaign ad. Since the U.S. Supreme Court had said in 2003 that “as applied” challenges to McCain-Feingold should be permitted, they accepted that invitation. The dissenting judge, Richard W. Roberts, said that the case is not yet ready for summary judgment and that a trial should have been held to ascertain the true motivations of the people who wrote and paid for the ad.

This ruling is good news for Unity.08. Another portion of the McCain-Feingold law, not at issue in this case, made it illegal for individuals to give large sums of money to political parties that engage in federal campaign activity. When the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold law was argued in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003, that Court said that if the McCain-Feingold law injures new and minor parties, that an as-applied challenge could also be made in the future to that part of the McCain-Feingold law. Now that one court (the 3-judge U.S. District Court in D.C.) has already ruled that McCain-Feingold is unconstitutional in certain situations, it should be easier for Unity.08 to bring its own lawsuit, alleging that McCain-Feingold, as applied to a new party, is also unconstituitonal. Unity.08 is currently handicapped by an FEC ruling that says no one may give it more than $5,000.

The 11th circuit will hold oral arguments in Swanson v Bennett the week of March 19-23, 2007, in Atlanta. This is the case that challenges the number of signatures and the petition deadline.

The Democratic National Committee says it won’t choose its national convention site for 2008, until January 2007. The leading contenders are New York city and Denver. Four years ago at this time, the Democratic Party had already chosen its 2004 site, Boston. Thanks to poster #1 for making this posting more accurate.

Republicans announced months ago that they are meeting in Minneapolis in 2008. See the June 1, 2006 B.A.N. for a list of major party sites and dates of presidential conventions going back to 1856.