Court hears arguments over anti-Hillary Clinton movie

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court appeared open to vigorous arguments Tuesday that federal campaign-finance law wrongly limits corporate-funded messages in political elections.

Theodore Olson, representing the producers of a 90-minute movie highly critical of former Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton, told the justices that the First Amendment freedom to participate in the political process "is being smothered by one of the most complicated, expensive and incomprehensible regulatory regimes ever invented."

Olson specifically protested a provision of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that kept Citizens United, a conservative group that produced the film, from distributing Hillary: The Movie through a video-on-demand program in early 2008.

More significantly, Olson asked the court to reverse long-standing cases allowing government to restrict campaign spending by corporations and unions because of the potentially corruptive aspect of big-money interests.

The justices' comments, along with their recent pattern of increasingly scrutinizing laws that limit corporate-funded political speech, suggested that Citizens United would prevail. Yet it was not clear how broadly the justices might rule and affect money in elections.

Justice Anthony Kennedy questioned whether, if the majority finds corporate campaign limits do not cover the feature-length movie, "then the whole statute (barring corporate-funded broadcasts) should fall."

There was no obvious consensus among a majority of the nine justices on the potential loosening of limits on corporate money.

The law at issue bars TV or radio ads financed with corporate or labor union money that refer to a candidate for federal office 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election.

Olson contended the movie, produced partly with corporate contributions, differs from the usual 60-second ads that Congress targeted. He characterized it as a documentary about Clinton, now secretary of State.