If
McCain-Feingold was the campaign finance gold standard of its time, the Democracy Dollars Act is the boldest campaign finance proposal today.
So
McCain-Feingold prevented the ads from airing during the two-month period preceding the election.
Similarly, the Citizens United case invalidated the odious provision of
McCain-Feingold that banned any organization from publishing an ad discussing a candidate within 30 days of an election.
FEC, which struck down portions of the 2001
McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law.
And the 1996 Democratic fundraising abuses paved the way for the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, better known as
McCain-Feingold. "Congress," says Democratic election lawyer Joseph Sandler, "is always fighting the last war." And whenever new reforms take effect, Washington's brightest minds turn to finding clever new ways to circumvent them.
"This is the best shot in the arm on the issue that we have had in a long time," says former Senator Russ Feingold, coauthor of the
McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation.
Thus was born
McCain-Feingold, a.k.a, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, a law that took Roosevelt's self-serving crusade a few steps further than the Supreme Court was willing to tolerate.
The Supreme Court had knocked back a provision of the
McCain-Feingold Act that prohibited all corporations and unions from broadcasting electioneering communications.
The Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 (also known as
McCain-Feingold) banned corporations from paying for "electioneering communications" that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate for federal office within 30 days of primary elections and 60 days of general elections.
After the 2002
McCain-Feingold (M-F) Act [5] went into effect, the public no longer had reason to suspect that corporate lobbying, campaign contributions or corporate cash affected elected officials' votes on legislation or positions on issues.
The
McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 was an attempt to seal the cracks.
With Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in the majority, the court upheld the
McCain-Feingold Act against a free-speech challenge by a 5-4 vote in 2003.