Supporting the 1st Amendment

I agree with the complaintants.

An unlikely duo of a hard-line conservative group and a liberal organization together have brought a lawsuit to block a new state rule regulating political issue ads and messages that took effect Sunday.

Wisconsin Club for Growth and One Wisconsin Now said in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Madison that the state agency behind the rule overstepped its authority and violated their constitutional right to free speech.

The rule by the Government Accountability Board requires groups that air ads or make communications heaping praise on or criticizing political candidates to disclose where they get their money and how they spend it - even if those groups don’t specifically urge their audience to vote for or against the candidate.

“Club for Growth and One Wisconsin Now . . . are virtually at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum,” the complaint reads. “Yet, they are united on one fundamental principle: The First Amendment guarantees the right to express - as freely and effectively as possible - their views on public issues and public officials as well as candidates for state public office.”

Mike Wittenwyler, a Madison attorney for the groups, said his clients will seek a quick decision from a federal judge before the law requires them to register on Aug. 13 and make disclosures about their messages and ads on Aug. 16.

Kevin Kennedy, director of the nonpartisan Accountability Board, said the agency spent more than a year taking input from the public and drafting the rule. The six former judges who sit on the board considered whether the rule was constitutional and unanimously approved it, he said.

“It wasn’t something that was pulled out of thin air,” he said. “It was carefully considered.”

Many very bad and unconstitutional decisions were “carefully considered.”  That’s not a defense.