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Supreme Court Upholds Corner Stone of Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002

Aired December 10, 2003 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, soft money hits a brick wall or we say marble, perhaps. The highest court in the land today upheld the corner stone of the Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002. But it was a close call in a very long, very complicated, very contentious decision.
CNN's clear and concise Bruce Morton live from D.C. to unravel all of this for us. Hello, Bruce.

BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles. A long decision? It's just a baby here. A couple hundred pages. I don't know.

What it does, though, is uphold the two main provisions of the Campaign Finance Reform Bill, the one that passed in 2002, the one under which the candidates have been running these many months.

Those two -- it's a ban on soft money, the kind of unregulated money that used to flow into party headquarters allegedly for party building, but in fact, for anything. And it puts restrictions on so- called issue ads, ads run by advocacy groups, People the American Way, the National Rifle association, whatever. But aimed at a candidate.

And it doesn't ban those ads. The court went out of its way to say we are regulating, we are not banning. But it requires that those ads, too, be funded with hard money, the same kind of hard money that the political candidates, the political parties have to use.

The decision was indeed close. It was five votes to four. And as so often, Sandra Day O'Connor was the swing vote. She was joined in the majority by Justice Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Breyer -- I've lost one here.

But anyway, the usual dessenting four, Justice Rehnquist, Justices Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy, though he said he would have voted for a limited soft money ban.

Reaction is already coming in. Marty Meehan, the Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts, one of the bills sponsors, called it a triumph for democracy. And here is the reaction from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president supported the campaign finance legislation and signed it into law because he believes that overall it helped improve the system. And I think today's court ruling will help bring some clarity to the process.

In our counsel's office we'll be reviewing this rather lengthy decision. I think it's 119 pages. So our counsel's office will be reviewing that decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORTON: And will this be the end of the fighting over campaign finance? Certainly not. The majority opinion said in part, "Money like water, will always find an outlet. What problems will arise and how Congress will respond is concerns for another day."

For this year, the new rules are in place and the campaigns for these several months now have been following them -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: So, Bruce, it's probably safe to say somewhere in the 200-page ruling are some loopholes that will be exploited in the future, right?

MORTON: Miles, this city is full of clever people who will tell you, My job is to take whatever the rules are to bend them to my candidate's advantage. And they're out doing that even as we speak.

O'BRIEN: So stay tuned for that. Bruce Morton, thank you very much. We'll be watching that report and watching that decision as closely as we can, reading through it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



Reform Act of 2002>


Aired December 10, 2003 - 13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, soft money hits a brick wall or we say marble, perhaps. The highest court in the land today upheld the corner stone of the Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002. But it was a close call in a very long, very complicated, very contentious decision.
CNN's clear and concise Bruce Morton live from D.C. to unravel all of this for us. Hello, Bruce.

BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles. A long decision? It's just a baby here. A couple hundred pages. I don't know.

What it does, though, is uphold the two main provisions of the Campaign Finance Reform Bill, the one that passed in 2002, the one under which the candidates have been running these many months.

Those two -- it's a ban on soft money, the kind of unregulated money that used to flow into party headquarters allegedly for party building, but in fact, for anything. And it puts restrictions on so- called issue ads, ads run by advocacy groups, People the American Way, the National Rifle association, whatever. But aimed at a candidate.

And it doesn't ban those ads. The court went out of its way to say we are regulating, we are not banning. But it requires that those ads, too, be funded with hard money, the same kind of hard money that the political candidates, the political parties have to use.

The decision was indeed close. It was five votes to four. And as so often, Sandra Day O'Connor was the swing vote. She was joined in the majority by Justice Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Breyer -- I've lost one here.

But anyway, the usual dessenting four, Justice Rehnquist, Justices Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy, though he said he would have voted for a limited soft money ban.

Reaction is already coming in. Marty Meehan, the Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts, one of the bills sponsors, called it a triumph for democracy. And here is the reaction from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president supported the campaign finance legislation and signed it into law because he believes that overall it helped improve the system. And I think today's court ruling will help bring some clarity to the process.

In our counsel's office we'll be reviewing this rather lengthy decision. I think it's 119 pages. So our counsel's office will be reviewing that decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORTON: And will this be the end of the fighting over campaign finance? Certainly not. The majority opinion said in part, "Money like water, will always find an outlet. What problems will arise and how Congress will respond is concerns for another day."

For this year, the new rules are in place and the campaigns for these several months now have been following them -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: So, Bruce, it's probably safe to say somewhere in the 200-page ruling are some loopholes that will be exploited in the future, right?

MORTON: Miles, this city is full of clever people who will tell you, My job is to take whatever the rules are to bend them to my candidate's advantage. And they're out doing that even as we speak.

O'BRIEN: So stay tuned for that. Bruce Morton, thank you very much. We'll be watching that report and watching that decision as closely as we can, reading through it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



Reform Act of 2002>