The DC Circuit Court of Appeals just handed down a 2-1 decision that will make things very interesting in federal election law... at least until the Supreme Court takes a look. The court in Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC has held that electioneering communications regulatons cannot restrict groups from airing ads that are attempting to impact public policy... the argument WRTL sought was for a narrow grassroots lobbying exemption. The Supreme Court now has a chance to clarify the scope of the original McConnell decision upholding BCRA... Is this a reasonable exemption or is it a gigantic loophole? I think that remains to be seen... if the law only works by restricting legitimate lobbying communications, then perhaps it wasn't such a hot idea to begin with. To be continued.
I'll note again that I always considered BCRA to be the Election Lawyer Full Employment Act of 2002... that was both funny and true.
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UPDATE... Rick Hassen has more at the Election Law Blog here. Opinion is here (PDF).
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