"The arms race for money that drives our campaigns threatens the concept of one person, one vote."
Federal Court Affirms Constitutionality of Judicial Public Financing
PRESS RELEASE May 1, 2008
FEDERAL COURT UPHOLDS NORTH CAROLINA’S INNOVATIVE JUDICIAL PUBLIC FINANCING PROGRAM
Constitutionality of Voter-Owned Elections Affirmed by 4th Circuit
The Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals resoundingly affirmed the constitutionality of North Carolina’s judicial campaign public financing program today.
The program—which allows candidates running for North Carolina’s appellate court to receive a public grant if they prove substantial small-donor support and agree to strict spending and fundraising limits—had been challenged by two losing judicial candidates and two political action committees after the 2004 election.
The Fourth Circuit decision is the latest in a series of court rebukes to challenges of the judicial program’s constitutionality. In each instance, the court has sided with defenders of the judicial public financing program and dismissed the claims of the plaintiffs.
“In unambiguous terms the Fourth Circuit has found that North Carolina’s judicial public financing program is constitutional and consistent with the First Amendment protection of free speech,” said Damon Circosta, Esq. Policy Director for the Center for Voter Education. “Far from chilling speech, Voter-Owned Elections invigorate speech, bringing thousands of people into the process, empowering candidates to run, and reducing the real and perceived corrupting influence of money on our political process.”
A dozen prominent reform groups, including the League of Women Voters, the Campaign Legal Center, Demos, and Democracy North Carolina filed amicus briefs outlaying the value and importance of the program. Several former and current justices, including G.K. Butterfield, Edward Greene, Henry Frye, also filed a brief defending the program.
Tom Coulson of Common Cause NC, one of the organizations intervening in the lawsuit, said he was gratified that the federal court recognized that the program protected the integrity of North Carolina’s court system. “This affirmation of North Carolina’s ground-breaking program will encourage other states to follow suit,” he said.
Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, said the decision was consistent with court decisions across the country, which have affirmed the constitutionality of Voter-Owned Elections. “This is a fantastic victory for a program that protects the interests of the public, the candidates, and the courts,” said Hall. “Because the North Carolina judicial reform program is a model for how to protect the interests of free speech and free elections, this decision has national implications.”
North Carolina’s first-in-the-nation judicial program has won national praise from the American Bar Association, the Brennan Center for Justice and others. The program was used as a model for judicial reform legislation recently passed in New Mexico and half a dozen other states are considering similar judicial public campaign financing programs, in part, because of North Carolina’s success.
Advocates say North Carolina’s program has dramatically increased the participation of small donors in judicial elections and drastically decreased the fundraising from attorneys and litigation-related interests. They point to evidence that campaign funding from litigation-related interests and attorneys has been significantly reduced since implementation of the program. One study, conducted by Democracy North Carolina, saw the percent of money that came from litigation-related interests or attorneys drop from 73% in the 2002 election to 14% in 2004 after the program was implemented.
Now, in its third cycle, judicial public financing has had widespread participation by candidates from across the ideological spectrum and across a variety of backgrounds. Nine of 11 of the winning candidates participated in the 2004 and 2006 cycles, and in the 2008 cycle, 14 of 16 candidates have opted in.
Beginning this year, a similar Voter-Owned public financing program is available for candidates running for three Council of State offices. Under the program, candidates running for Commissioner of Insurance, State Auditor, and Superintendent of Public Instruction can receive a public grant, if they similarly prove community support through small dollar contributions and agree to strict spending and fundraising limits.
Chase Foster, Coordinator for NCVCE said that today’s court decision enlivens the overall movement for public campaign financing.
“Today’s court decision invigorates our national movement to provide real voter-owned alternatives to the special interest money chase,” said Foster. This ruling is just one more proof that Voter-Owned Elections should be the way we run every election from our town mayors to our national President .”
North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections is the overarching coordinating coalition for the campaign finance reform movement in North Carolina. Their membership includes Democracy North Carolina, the Center for Voter Education, League of Women Voters, Common Cause, NC PIRG, AARP, the NAACP, NCAE, the NC Banker’s Association, and the NC Council of Churches, among two dozen others.
Click here to view the court’s opinion.
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