Now an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, will join the eight other members of the Court in September for a hearing, among others, on a challenge to the McCain-FeingoldBipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of of 2002.

The Act deals with two issues. 1. Limits the role of "soft money" in campaign financing - money that was not regulated and often in large amounts contributed by special interest organizations and committees.  2. Prohibits the use of advocasy ads that name a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election and prohibits these ads to be paid for by a corporation or non-profit organization.

The Constitutionality challenge started with a modest filing, Citizens United V FEC (Federal Elections Commission), dealing with a Video-On-Demand Anti-Hillary Movie. I don't think many of us paid a lot of attention to this, even when the Court recently decided to rehear the case. Now there is an Amicus Brief in favor of the Constitutionality of the BCRA filed by The Brennan Center Law School at NYU and recently joined by Calitics, a "Progressive" organization.

This is now a much more interesting case that will affect campaign financing and advertising regardless of the decision of the Court. What makes this so interesting are the lists of strange bedfellows who support the challenge and those who support the FEC. On the challenge side are the the ACLU, the AFL-CIO, the NRA and Senator Mitch McConnell (R), Kentucky. On the side of the FCC are the DNC, Senator John McCain (R) Arizona and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. You can view a more complete list at the Citizen's United web site.

If you are interested, you can see a complete list of filings related to this case by clicking here.
Personally, I'm glad to see diversity on the Supreme Court. I have a feeling about Justice SotoMayor. She just might surprise all of us, including the President. I interpreted her "wise Latina woman" comment as meaning we all bring a little of ourselves into whatever we do in life and it didn't bother me.