Court Says Issue Ads OK During Elections
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
Friday, December 22, 2006
(12-22) 07:00 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
A federal court on Thursday loosened restrictions on corporations, unions and other special interest groups that run political advertising in peak election season.
The 2-1 ruling said groups may mention candidates by name in commercials as long as they are trying to influence public policy, rather than sway an election.
The ruling came in a challenge to the so-called McCain-Feingold law designed to reduce the influence of big money in political campaigns. The law banned groups from using unrestricted money to run advertisements that name candidates two months before a general election or one month before a primary.
Wisconsin Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, has been fighting the law since 2004, when it sought to run an advertisement urging voters to contact Wisconsin Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, both Democrats, and ask them not to hold up President Bush's judicial nominees.
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/12/21/politics/p152826S50.DTL
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