Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL) case last week, on June 29 the Court sent back another case (Christian Civic League of Maine Inc. v. Federal Election Commission) to the lower court for a new ruling consistent with the WRTL June 25th decision. The Christian Civic League (CCL) had asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a lower court's ruling that dismissed its challenge to restrictions on funding of political ads under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA).

A National Journal ($$) column explains how the prohibition on corporations paying for broadcasts that mention federal candidates 60 days before a general election or 30 days before a primary in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) sought to prevent business corporations from getting involved in election campaigns, but in turn censored nonprofit groups' criticism of the work of elected officials. "Because nearly all nonprofit advocacy groups are incorporated, the effect was to extend to such groups a ban ostensibly aimed at companies like General Electric and Dow Chemical.

CQ ($$) reports that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill for foreign operations that will permit the U.S. to provide contraceptives to family-planning groups to distribute in developing countries. This would be an important change to the Global Gag Rule (also known as the Mexico City Policy) in ending restrictions on use of private funds by nonprofits with federal family planning grants.

As already noted, Republicans will only go along with naming conferees for the ethics and lobbying bill if the Senate takes up the Senate electronic filing bill along with an unspecified amendment. According to BNA Money and Politics, ($$) that amendment likely deals with lifting controls on political party coordinated spending to help candidates.