PRESS RELEASE Wednesday, February 17, 2010
From: James Bopp, Jr.
Yesterday a federal district court granted a preliminary injunction in Thalheimer v. San Diego, No. 09-CV-2862, and told the City of San Diego it cannot enforce four sections of its campaign finance law because they are likely unconstitutional. San Diego’s law prevented candidates like Phil Thalheimer, a former candidate for City Council who is considering another run in 2012, from spending any of his own money more than a year in advance of the primary to announce his interest in running. The law also prevented contributions from average citizens to political parties being used to support those parties’ candidates. The law also placed a limit on how much money committees can spend independently of candidates, and banned committees from using any money contributed by organizations for their independent expenditures. The court found that each of these laws was likely unconstitutional, and said San Diego cannot enforce them.
James Bopp, Jr., lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, stated, “This decision is a victory for the First Amendment and all the citizens of San Diego. Their First Amendment rights have been vindicated by the court.” Mr. Bopp explained, “The Supreme Court has made it clear that the First Amendment does not allow laws that keep candidates from spending their own money, or prevent political parties from contributing to their candidates. And, in the Supreme Court’s most recent campaign finance case, the Court said that organizations have a First Amendment right to spend their money, independent of any candidate, for political speech purposes. And, they can spend as much as they want to. Yet, San Diego’s law told people that they couldn’t do these things, even though the First Amendment says they can.”
James Bopp, Jr. has a national federal and state election law practice. He is an attorney with Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom and General Counsel for the James Madison Center for Free Speech. He is also a former Co-Chairman of the Election Law Subcommittee of the Federalist Society. Contact:jboppjr@aol.com
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