From the James Madison Center: On April 24, a three-judge panel consisting of Judith W. Rogers of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Louis F. Oberdorfer and Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the D.C. District Court, heard arguments on the Christian Civic League of Maine’s (“CCL”) motion for preliminary injunction from James Bopp, Jr., General Counsel for the James Madison Center for Free Speech, and attorneys for the FEC and several Congressmen who intervened, If granted, the injunction would allow CCL to broadcast a grassroots lobbying advertisement in support of the federal Marriage Protection Amendment before a Senate vote on the measure in early June. James Bopp, arguing for the injunction, emphasized the First Amendment’s protection of the right to lobby legislators on upcoming votes and the Supreme Court’s recognition in McConnell v. FEC, 540 U.S. 93 (2003) that applying the electioneering communication prohibition to such grassroots lobbying might be unconstitutional. The FEC and intervenors’ attorneys argued that the Supreme Court unequivocally answered the question of CCL’s ad in McConnell, and argued for the need for a “bright line rule” that encompassed the ad that CCL wishes to run. “If there were ever any questions about whether McConnell approved of prohibiting grassroots lobbying during the blackout period, they were answered in Wisconsin Right to Life, when the Supreme Court vacated the district court’s holding and remanded the case,” says Bopp. “The issue now is the parameters of the grassroots lobbying exception to the electioneering communication prohibition, and this court seemed to recognize that.” A transcript of the hearing is available at the James Madison Center for Free Speech website, at http://www.jamesmadisoncenter.org.