For a nation browbeaten with third-party, ultra-negative campaign ads, relief may finally be in sight in the form of Merrick Garland.
Maybe.
Despite his vote with the majority in a key case that opened the door for super PACs, the 63-year-old federal judge whom President Barack Obama nominated to the Supreme Court today has a record that suggests he’d favor more regulation of money in politics, some campaign finance reformers say….
Garland has a pretty good record on campaign finance-related issues in the eyes of campaign finance reformers. Last year, in Wagner v. Federal Election Commission, he authored a unanimous decision to uphold a ban on government contractors making political contributions, and in 2008 joined a unanimous decision saying that the FEC wasn’t doing enough to implement the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act. In 2009, he authored a decision upholding lobbying disclosure in which he noted that, “More than 50 years ago, the Supreme Court held that the public disclosure of ‘who is being hired, who is putting up the money, and how much’ they are spending to influence legislation is ‘a vital national interest.’”
Garland has also upheld limits on corporations’ First Amendment rights in, among others, a decision that said it was acceptable for government agencies to require corporations to disclose where their food was sourced from, and another that prevented corporations from saying a product cured diseases without a trial to prove it….
There is one very important case on Garland’s record, however, that gives reformers pause:SpeechNow vs. FEC, a decision that, along with Citizens United, made possible the current proliferation of super PACs.