Vermont Right to Life Committee

PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Contact: Mary Hahn Beerworth

Phone and Fax 802-229-4885; vrlc@verizon.net

Vermont Right to Life Committee Appeals Campaign Finance

Case to the U.S. Supreme Court

            The Vermont Right to Life Committee (VRLC) has asked the United States Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit’s decision upholding provisions of Vermont’s campaign finance law.  The Second Circuit upheld the law’s mandatory candidate expenditure limits and severe limits on contributions to candidates.  One of the most troubling aspects of the Second Circuit’s decision is its approval of the law’s mandatory presumption that any expenditure by political committees or political parties that primarily benefits six or fewer candidates is a related expenditure subject to the contribution and expenditure limits.

            VRLC’s Fund for Independent Political Expenditures is a political committee devoted exclusively to making independent expenditures advocating the election or defeat of state candidates.  It does not make contributions to candidates or their campaigns, and its independent expenditures are not under the direction or control of any candidate.  However, under Vermont’s mandatory presumption of coordination, expenditures by VRLC benefiting six or fewer candidates, even though made independently of a candidate, would be considered related campaign expenditures under the statute and subject to the candidate contribution limits.  Thus, if VRLC’s fund independently sent out a mailing endorsing a candidate for state senate that cost $500, it would exceed the contribution limit by $200, and would subject VRLC to civil and criminal penalties. 

            The Second Circuit’s decision upholding the presumption of coordination conflicts with the decisions of the Supreme Court and other federal circuit and district courts holding that coordinated expenditures, by definition, require control, cooperation, or prearrangement with a candidate.  Vermont’s presumption converts protected expenditures into contributions and directly violates the speech and association rights guaranteed to political committees by the United States Constitution.

            VRLC also asked the Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit’s decision upholding Vermont’s extremely low $200-$400 contribution limits (which replaced the $2000 limits previously in effect).  The Supreme Court has warned that contribution limits that are too low are unconstitutional.  Justices Breyer and Ginsburg, as well as three other Justices, expressed the concern in a 2000 case that Missouri’s contribution limit of $1,075 for statewide candidates might be too low.  Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Gov’t PAC, 528 U.S. 377, 404 (2000) (Breyer, J., concurring).  Contribution limits as low as Vermont’s have nothing to do with preventing quid pro quo corruption, which is possible only with large contributions.

            The opinions of the Second Circuit and the District Court and the Petition for Certiorari to the Supreme Court are available from the James Madison Center for Free Speech at jamesmadisoncenter.org.  

Mary Hahn Beerworth
Executive Director
Vermont Right to Life
PO Box 1079
Montpelier, VT 05601
(802)229-4885