Issue ads allowed in election run-up

Dang! Seems like some judges here actually read the Constitution…and amazingly enough, decided to follow it!

Political groups have a constitutional right to run issue ads that include the name of a candidate for office even in the contentious days before an election, a panel of federal judges ruled yesterday in the first major dent in the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law. Under that law, ads that interest groups ran 60 days before an election or 30 days before a primary were assumed to be aimed at influencing voters if they mentioned a candidate for federal office.

The small but potentially deep change creates an exception to what had been considered a near-blanket rule. “A free-speech interest is too substantial here,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, who said the government didn’t justify such a broad ban.

DUH! “…free-speech interest is too substantial here…” Wonder what their first clue was: must have been the bit about “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech…” Actually following the Constitution? What a concept!