How does McCain -Feingold limit or chill issue advocacy?
The American Civil Liberties Union believes that too many current proposals attempt to restrict issue advocacy, soft money and rights of new Americans and lawful permanent residents in a manner inconsistent with federal court holdings and constitutional rights. For the sake of today’s testimony I will focus my remarks primarily on key elements of S. 26, because this is the bill that has the most co-sponsors and enjoys the support of President Clinton. We believe that this bill violates First Amendment rights because the legislation contains provisions that would create burdensome laws that will abridge the very speech that the First Amendment was designed to protect – political speech. McCain-Feingold has a chilling affect on issue group speech that is essential in a democracy. This bill contains restrictions on issue advocacy achieved through unconstitutionally redefining issue advocacy as “electioneering communications.” The Supreme Court has held that only express advocacy, narrowly
