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Federal Election Commission V. Wisconsin Right To Life Case Study

Submitted By
Words 401
Pages 2
Brandon Barrett
12-9-15
Prof. Odell Constitutional Law and Civil Rights
Case Name: Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life Citation: 551 US 449 Year: 200 Vote of Court: 5-4

Relevant case facts: Wisconsin Right to Life aired three advertisements, which enticed viewers to contact two U.S. senators. They wanted the people watching to call the senators and to tell them to oppose filibusters of judicial nominees. These ads were intended to run throughout the 2004 election but the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 prohibits corporate funds for the running of political advertisement, 60 days before an election. The WRTL then sued the Federal Election Commission saying that the BCRA was unconstitutional. In the case of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission the court believed that Congress had the right to regulate “Express advocacy” ads. The “express advocacy” ads support or oppose political candidates. The WRTL claimed their ads were “issue ads” rather then express advocacy. The WRTL also said that there was a lack of a compelling interest by the government to be able to control the …show more content…
The ads that WRTL were showing were genuine issue ads and were not express advocacy ads; therefore congress could not regulate these ads. The court adopted a test, which states, "an ad is the functional equivalent of express advocacy only if the ad is susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate." The compelling state interests of the government to regulate advocacy ads did not justify to the same extent as to the genuine issue ads. The government could not regulate these ads only if their true interests in doing so were to prevent corruption or “distorting effects of corporate wealth.” The court’s reason’s for holding what it did was to give the “benefit of the doubt to speech, not

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