FEDERAL COURTS HELP REMEDY REFORM MESS

Once again, the federal courts have had to protect the First Amendment and free speech against the depredations of the peddlers of campaign finance reform. This past week it was the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, the level of appeallate court that is one rung below the U.S. Supreme Court. Before a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit was a Missouri law passed by the General Assembly in 1994 and signed into law by Gov. Mel Carnahan. This latest attempt by the campaign reformers to silence and regulate speech is unconstitutional, the court ruled, and must be struck down. As of now, there are no limits on donations to election campaigns for state office in Missouri.

In 1994, the reformers passed a bill limiting donations at $1,000 for statewide offices, $500 for state senate campaigns and $250 for state representative campaigns. Included in the bill was a measure providing for periodic adjustments in these amounts according to changes in the Consumer Price Index. The result is that this past year, permissible donor limits were $1,075 for statewide offices, $550 for state senate races and $275 for state representative campaigns. It is these adjusted limits the court struck down.

This the court did because there isn't any getting around the fact that the expenditure of money in a political campaign is protected free speech. Any who doubt this should consider a clear analogy: the right to travel. If government said you have a right to travel, but established limits of $1,000 in annual travel expenditures, has the right been limited? Of course it has. Any "right" so narrowly circumscribed is meaningless. So it is with campaign expenditures in our electoral process.

This has been settled constitutional law since the Supreme Court so ruled in 1976. At every subsequent opportunity, the high court has reaffirmed this ruling. It is a shame but nonetheless a blessing that the federal courts have to keep intervening to vindicate our free-speech rights. Thank goodness that they see this issue clearly, even if our friends among the reformers never do.