Litigation

Hopes Buoyed for WI Public-Finance Law?

By Peter Hardin

Some defenders of a controversial new Wisconsin law for public financing of state Supreme Court candidates are taking heart from a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision.

The appeals court upheld the matching funds provision of Arizona?s public financing system for statewide and legislative offices (see Gavel Grab).

In Wisconsin, two lawsuits have been filed challenging the constitutionality of the state’s new law. And the Ninth Circuit ruling has “boosted the hopes” of defenders of that statute, Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, writes in a Madison Capital Times commentary.

Heck calls the Ninth Circuit ruling a “stunning victory for reformers” and a  “very big and significant reason for optimism.” He likens the matching funds  provision in Arizona’s law to a provision in the Wisconsin law that critics have attacked.

The Arizona provision provides additional taxpayer dollars to publicly-funded candidates if their privately-funded opponent exceeds a spending limit set by the state.

It was another reflection of the controversial nature of the Arizona law, meanwhile, that a Wall Street Journal editorial questioned the Ninth Circuit decision. “In upholding Arizona’s law, the oft-overturned Ninth Circuit has invited another rebuke from the Supreme Court,” the editorial said.

You can read about Wisconsin’s law, and about debates over legality of public financing plans for judicial elections, in Gavel Grab. You also can learn more from Justice at Stake’s issues page on public financing laws.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 28, 2010 (boomark / email).