In Monday's National Journal, ($$) the "Rules of the Game" column examines how the Supreme Court, as some perceive, is attacking campaign financing reform initiatives. As election law scholar Rick Hasen says, "We could well be looking at a situation where the only campaign finance laws that are constitutional are disclosure laws and voluntary public financing systems."

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released a memorandum for exempt organization (EO) revenue agents detailing how they should examine cases involving allegations of political activity on the Internet as part of the Political Activity Compliance Initiative (PACI). For example, in figuring out whether an exempt group is engaging in prohibited political activity, the IRS agents are to consider the "number of 'clicks' or electronic proximity between an exempt organization and the site of a political message," and "the context of the link is another significant consideration."

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) with its new panel of commissioners is expected to vote Monday July 28 on the first FEC advisory opinions. Club for Growth PAC has requested that they can exclude the spoken "stand-by-your-ad" disclaimers from short television advertisements. The draft advisory opinion to be voted on rejects their request.

The Hill reports that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is "trying their luck with a series of candidate ads that inhabit a gray area of the law, and observers say the approach could be a game-changer in the continuing battle over campaign finance reform." Campaign finance rules restrict the amount of money the DSCC can spend on coordinated efforts with a campaign, but the DSCC argues that since the ads do not ask the viewers to vote for the candidates, the law does not apply.