Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

The Basic Problem with Regulating Campaign Finance

"Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech.” Unfortunately, politicians and the Supreme Court don’t seem to understand that no means no. Instead, they have foisted upon us complex regulation of campaign finance. The upshot? Case in point:

Obama general counsel Bob Bauer today sent a second, sharper letter to the Justice Department, directly attacking the Dallas billionaire funding a harsh attack ad, Harold Simmons.

“We reiterate our request that the Department of Justice fulfill its commitment to take prompt action to investigate and to prosecute the American issues Project, and we further request that the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute Howard (sic) Simmons for a knowing and willful violation of the individual aggregate contribution limits,” he wrote.

Bob Bauer is a serial offender in trying to criminalize speech that disadvantages his clients, but it’s a bipartisan sport. We ought to junk the campaign finance laws and replace them with a simple disclosure regime.