And the Supreme Court may smack the Montana Supreme Court down as well.
Conservative
groups won another victory Wednesday in an ongoing challenge to Montana
campaign finance laws when a federal judge agreed that several
regulations unconstitutionally restrict free speech.
U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell mostly sided with Virginia-based
American Tradition Partnership in its federal case attacking several
aspects of state campaign finance laws. The judge determined that state
laws requiring attack ads to disclose the targeted candidates’ voting
record and ban knowingly false statements in such ads are
unconstitutionally vague.
The ruling largely matched a preliminary
determination made earlier by the judge. But Lovell went a step further
and also decided that Montana cannot ban corporations from making
contributions to political committees that make independent
expenditures.
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