High court will rehear 'Hillary' documentary case

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court, which has chipped away at limits on political spending in recent years, opened the door Monday to a broad challenge of the nation's campaign-finance laws.

The court failed to reach a decision on whether a critical documentary about Hillary Rodham Clinton violated those laws. Instead, the justices ordered new arguments and said they would consider overturning two rulings barring corporations from underwriting election ads.

The move signals that "they could well strike down corporate spending limits," said Richard Hasen of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

By scheduling the arguments for Sept. 9 — weeks before the Supreme Court's new term in October — the justices also have put pressure on the Senate to act swiftly on President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter.

Sotomayor "is likely to be as supportive of campaign-finance laws as Justice Souter has been," Hasen said. She served on the New York City Campaign Finance Board before joining the federal bench. In a 1996 speech, which she later published as a law-review article, Sotomayor questioned whether campaign contributions differed from "bribes."

New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the court's decision adds "urgency" to Sotomayor's confirmation hearings.

The Clinton case centers on a provision of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that bars corporations or labor unions from financing any "broadcast, cable, or satellite communication" that refers to a candidate within 30 days of an election. That kept a conservative group, Citizens United, from distributing Hillary: The Movie through video-on-demand during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

Citizens United said the ban infringed on free speech. Monday, the group's president David Bossie said he was "optimistic" about a second chance before the court.

In 2007, the justices scaled back part of the 2002 campaign-finance law that restricted ads financed by corporations, unions and other big-money donors.