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6 J.L. & Pol'y 137 (1997-1998)
Campaign Finance Reform: Still Searching Today for a Better Way

handle is hein.journals/jlawp6 and id is 145 raw text is: CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM: STILL SEARCHING TODAY FOR A BETTER WAY Joel M. Gora INTRODUCTION I first encountered campaign finance reform as a young ACLU lawyer twenty-five years ago, in 1972. Three old-time dissenters came to the ACLU offices in New York with an incredible story. In May of that year the group had run a two-page advertisement in the New York Times advocating the impeachment of President Richard Nixon for the bombing of Cambodia and praising those few hardy-and clearly identified-Members of Congress who had sponsored an Impeachment Resolution.' The advertisement was turgid, wordy, legalistic and not very slick, but it embodied the essence of what the First Amendment stands for: the right of citizens to express their opinion about the conduct of their government, free from fear of sanctions or reprisals from that government. Nonetheless, before the ink on the advertisement was barely dry, the federal government had hauled the group into federal court. How, we wondered, could this be possible? We were especially mystified since this was a time, the Spring of 1972, when New York imes Company v. Sullivan was protecting the most vigorous citizen criticism of government officials against libel suits,2 Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School; co-counsel for challengers in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976). I would like to acknowledge the support of a Brooklyn Law School Summer Research Stipend grant for my work on this article, and express my appreciation to Mark McCauley, Class of 1999, for his research assistance. See United States v. National Comm. for Impeachment, 469 F.2d 1135, 1143-47 (2d Cir. 1972). 2 376 U.S. 254 (1964).

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