The Constitution and Campaign Finance Reform

Book excerpt: This new edition assembles the scholarship of some of the most prominent critics and supporters of jurisprudence on the U.S. Constitution and campaign finance. Contributors include academics, judges, reform advocates and practitioners, including Columbia law professor Richard Briffault, Chicago law professor Case R. Sunstei, former FCC Commission Chairman Reed Hundt, Democracy 21 president Fred Wertheimer, and former U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright. Among many important topics, the new edition discusses the concept of money as speech, the possible compelling state interests necessary to justify government limitations, and various alternative methods of regulating campaign finance. The new edition includes discussions of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (the so-called McCain-Feingold Legislation), the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision in McConnell v. FEC, and entities organized under Internal Revenue Code section 527. The organization of the materials allows the addition of campaign finance module for existing Constitutional Law, Election Law, First Amendment, and Political Science courses or the creation of a separate course on this important subject. "A well-rounded collection of contrasting arguments." -- Law & Politics Book Review