On July 29, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued two orders in the case of Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC, 04-1260 (LFO), the lawsuit seeking an injunction against portions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law in order to allow the continuation of an anti-filibuster broadcast ad campaign by Wisconsin Right to Life. McCain-Feingold bars corporations from broadcasting advertisements within 30 days of a primary election and 60 days of a general election which mentions the name of a candidate for federal office.

Wisconsin Right to Life is running broadcast advertisements that ask Wisconsin citizens to contact Senators Russell Feingold and Herbert Kohl and to urge them to oppose the filibustering of President Bush's judicial nominees. Because Sen. Feingold is a candidate in the upcoming Wisconsin primary and general election, the ads cannot be run using his name from August 15 through November 2.

One of the orders issued today by the federal court grants Wisconsin Right to Life's application for a 3-judge court. The chief judge of the District of Columbia Circuit will appoint two more judges to sit on the panel with District Court Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer, who was originally assigned the case. Under the rules, at least one of the two new appointed judges must be a judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The other order set a status conference for Thursday, August 5, to discuss the conduct of the case with attorneys for Wisconsin Right to Life and the Federal Election Commission. The status conference will be held in Courtroom 3 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, E. Barrett Prettyman US Courthouse, 333 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20001.

Bopp responds to criticism of the suit by Senator Feingold's campaign.