Did Bopp Flop In Attempt To Circumvent Blackout Period?

Favorite wing-nut attorney and Indiana's new national GOP Committeeman, Jim Bopp, argued before a three-judge panel today that the Christian right group he is purporting to represent, Maine's Christian Civic League, should be allowed to drive a hole through McCain-Feingold and run anti-gay marriage ads during the so-called blackout period. These particular ads would target Maine's two Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of whom oppose a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages. An AP report by Peter Yost suggests that Bopp's argument flopped with the 3-judge panel. Yost writes:

Three federal judges reacted skeptically Monday to a conservative group that wants to air an advertisement around election time singling out Maine's two U.S. senators on the issue of same-sex marriage.

The Christian Civic League is challenging a provision of federal law that bars corporate and union treasury funds from being used to influence campaigns right before an election.

The league's proposed radio ad represents grass-roots lobbying rather than electioneering, said James Bopp, an attorney from Terre Haute, Ind., for the conservative group that claims its free speech rights are harmed by the law.

In Maine's election primary, scheduled for June 13, Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Republican, is running unopposed. Maine's other senator, Republican Susan Collins, doesn't face re-election until 2008.

The Federal Election Commission said allowing the ad to run would seriously erode what has been a bright-line rule in the campaign fundraising reform law sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold, D-Wis.

The provision prohibits corporations or interest groups from airing advertisements that name candidates within 30 days of a primary election and 60 days before general elections.

The Christian Civic League "is basically asking for a blank check" to run ads that the law prohibits, said Daniel Ortiz, an attorney for five members of Congress who supported the reform legislation.

The three judges who heard the arguments expressed strong doubts that the ad could be broadcast as worded and still comply with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

The Christian Civil League is a Christian hate group not unlike Indiana's Advance America. Like Advance America, it also purports to be a 501(c)(3) charitable group. As Yost explains:

A tax-exempt Maine corporation, the league wants to run the ad in advance of an early June vote in the Senate on the Marriage Protection Amendment, which says that marriage is solely between a man and a woman.

The ad says: "Unfortunately, your senators voted against the Marriage Protection Amendment two years ago. Please call Sens. Snowe and Collins immediately and urge them to support the Marriage Protection Amendment when it comes to a vote in early June."

Yost points out in his article that Jim Bopp is also an attorney for Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the group behind this lawsuit as we previously reported. All three of the judges who heard Bopp's case were appointed by Democrats, two by President Clinton and one by President Carter.