"The Ripple Effects of the FEC's Rules on Political Blogging: Why They Will End Up Undermining Limits on Corporation and Union Campaign Finance Activities"

Findlaw has published my commentary, which begins:

The blurring of the line between journalists and others, particularly bloggers, is having ripple effects in the world of campaign finance. And, although most people don't realize it yet, the effects could be so large as to effectively end a century-old limit on corporate and labor union participation in politics. What likely will take the place of that limit is a new legal regime where the only regulation of independent political speech is disclosure of funding sources.

It discusses both controversies over blogging and the recent Pew/NPR/American Prospect debate.
In somewhat related commentary, Bob Bauer writes Dodging the Draft: The Significance of the Leaked Draft of Proposed Internet Rules from the Office of General Counsel. One question I have not heard a satisfactory answer to yet is the propriety of the draft being leaked. Is this illegal, improper, a violation of FEC internal rules? If not, why don't we see more of this? I certainly think it is a bad idea that working documents get leaked, because it will chill vigorous debate within the agency.

Posted by Rick Hasen at April 5, 2005 07:25 AM