Protecting Free Speech Against McCain/Feingold-Like Laws.(National Right to Life Committee)

"The most natural privilege of man, next to the right of acting for himself, is that of combining his exertions with those of his fellow creatures, and of acting in common with them. The right of association therefore appears to me almost as inalienable in its nature as the right of personal liberty. No legislator can attack it without impairing the foundations of society."

Alexis de Tocqueville, 2 Democracy in America 203 (Bradley, ed., 1954).

Should it ever become law, the misguided and unconstitutional McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill will be on a collision course with dozens of successful lawsuits filed on behalf of National Right to Life Committee affiliates and others over the past decade that have challenged state and federal laws efforts that unconstitutionally restrict freedom of speech and association.

Because pro-life people have vigilantly protected their voices from being silenced, a huge body of federal case law stands as a bulwark against this latest threat. Of the 52 cases challenging state and federal election laws my firm has filed to date, 35 have been completed, 32 successfully (91%), including 8 wins in a row against the Federal Election Commission (FEC). These precedents shield our liberty to band together to tenaciously advance the cause of the unborn in the political realm.

While this issue may not immediately seem to be of great importance to pro-life groups, in fact it has profound implications. The freedom of grassroots organizations (which typically are comprised of people of limited financial means) to associate is paramount.

By contrast the forces for so-called "reform" are well funded and resourceful. To counteract the anti-free-speech "reformers" the James Madison Center for Free Speech was founded in 1997 with the help of NRLC and United States Senator Mitch McConnell. The Madison Center is a nonprofit organization devoted exclusively to combating unconstitutional election laws on behalf of pro-life and conservative groups, who would not otherwise be able to mount federal lawsuits. 1

In the year 2000 alone, we were able to mount two lawsuits that challenged what the courts agreed were unconstitutional federal election laws as well as launch nine suits challenging unconstitutional state election laws. We also submitted a "friend of the court" brief urging the United States Supreme Court to strike down a state election law in Cook v. Gralike, which the High Court did on February 28, 2001.