Nation's first public campaign financing survives court challenge
Taxpayer-funded political donation vouchers in Seattle can continue because they don't restrict any voter's free speech rights, the Supreme Court of Washington ruled Thursday.
The unanimous decision, upholding the first public campaign financing program in the nation, is a potential milestone for the cause of revamping the way money flows in politics.
The judicial blessing is welcome news for the public financing systems created in at least seven other cities and counties across the country since Seattle established its program four years ago. It is also a sign that various ideas for government subsidy of campaigns — which are under discussion in dozens of local jurisdictions, have advanced halfway through Congress this spring and also become a topic on the Democratic presidential campaign trail — will remain open to debate without being readily swept away as violating the Constitution.
Seattle's system "does not alter, abridge, restrict, censor, or burden speech. Nor does it force association between taxpayers and any message conveyed by the program. Thus, the program does not violate First Amendment rights," Justice Steven Gonzalez wrote for the state's top court.
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