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“You say you want to serve your country by running as a candidate for Congress today? Show me the money. Otherwise, you will be shown the door.”

 - Bob Kerrey
Former Senator from Nebraska
ACR Chair

Bipartisan Former Senators Urge Court to Uphold 1st Amendment Constitutionality

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
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WASHINGTON, DC – Former Senators Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) and Timothy Wirth (D-Colo.), amici in the Supreme Court case of McComish v. Bennett, today attended oral arguments in the case and spoke to press outside the Court on the importance of upholding the free speech constitutionality of Arizona’s voluntary public funding law as a precedent for other states and the federal government.
Senators Pressler and Wirth joined a bipartisan committee of former U.S. Senators, Representatives, and Governors on behalf of Americans for Campaign Reform in signing the amicus brief. The lead attorneys on the  brief were Professor Charles Fried, the former Solicitor General under President Reagan, and attorneys Clifford Sloan, Bradley Klein, Geoffrey Wyatt, and Cory Black of the law firm Skadden Arps.
Speaking on behalf of the amici, Senator Pressler said, “For a campaign system already compromised by special interest money, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling last year dealt a crippling blow to basic American ideals of fairness and accountability in government. Public funding cherishes First Amendment free speech by enabling more voices to speak and be heard without imposing any limits on outside spending, and I hope the Supreme Court will recognize this vital fact.”
Joining Senator Pressler, Senator Wirth said, “We’ve all seen how Congress is stuck in the mud of strident partisanship, excessive ideology, never-ending campaigns, and at the heart of it all a corrosive system of private campaign funding and the constant fundraising it demands. We urge the Court not to intervene in the right of state governments and the Congress to implement voluntary public funding laws that put an end to special interest funding of campaigns.”
The following former elected officials were amici in the brief:
(full brief: http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/attachments/McComish_amici_FormerElectedOfficials.pdf)