FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 28, 2006
Contact: Renee Giachino or Timothy Lee
703-535-5836

CFIF Files Respondent's Brief before U.S. Supreme Court in Carmouche, et. al v. Center for Individual Freedom

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) last week filed a Brief in Opposition to the Petition for a Writ of Certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Carmouche, et. al v. Center for Individual Freedom.  The case, on appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, involves CFIF's legal challenge to Louisiana's Campaign Finance Disclosure Act.

Last spring, the Fifth Circuit agreed with CFIF's challenge to the Act and its enforcement by ruling that Louisiana's campaign finance law does not restrict or regulate independent political issue advertising.  CFIF argued and the Fifth Circuit agreed that Louisiana's campaign finance law was vague and potentially overbroad, leading to a chilling effect on political free speech protected by the First Amendment.

"The Fifth Circuit has made it clear that Louisiana's campaign finance law does not prevent advocacy groups and citizens from freely speaking about the issue before their elected representatives when it matters most --at election time," said Renee Giachino, CFIF's Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President. "This is consistent with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in which political speech and association are afforded the strictest protections."

Petitioners, which include a Louisiana District Attorney, members of the Louisiana Board of Ethics, and the Supervisory Committee for Campaign Finance, seek Supreme Court review on the grounds, in part, that the Fifth Circuit erred by not referring this case to the Louisiana Supreme Court. 

In arguing that the petition should be denied, CFIF notes that none of the factors that traditionally support a grant of certiorari are present in the case before the Supreme Court.  More specifically, the brief argues that there is no circuit split on the issue, that the Fifth Circuit correctly analyzed the Supreme Court's controlling precedents, that no question of exceptional importance demands review, that the Fifth Circuit's was a narrow response to the facts before it, and that Louisiana's Fifth Circuit brief did not seek certification of any issue to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

"In upholding the First Amendment rights of advocacy groups and citizens against the State of Louisiana's desire to subjectively control all advertising about elected public officials and the issues before them, the Fifth Circuit restored the free-speech rights of all Louisianans," said Giachino.  "Nothing in the Fifth Circuit's decision or the circumstances surrounding it warrants review by the U.S. Supreme Court," Giachino concluded.

• To read a copy of the CFIF's Respondent's Brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, click here.

  To read a copy of the Fifth Circuit's decision, click here.