What Roberts Might Overturn First

Good news for those of us who think McCain-Feingold's restrictions on political speech violate the letter and spirit of the First Amendment—the Supreme Court has decided to take on two campaign finance cases in its next term. Election-law specialist Rick Hasen comments:

These are very interesting developments. In recent years, the Court has divided 5-4 in some major campaign finance decisions. With the replacement of Chief Justice Rehnquist and (presumably) Justice O'Connor, we could well be looking at a new majority on the Court that will start voting to strike down campaign finance laws as inconsistent with the First Amendment. (Indeed, this might be an area where we will see quickly to a Chief Justice Roberts how much respect for recent constitutional precedent matters.) Since the 1976 Buckley case, the Court's cases have swung back and forth like a pendulum, in recent years in favor of upholding campaign finance regulations. We could well be entering the period where the pendulum swings back.