Getting a Day in Court
Though Washington, D.C. is a town that prides itself on being a perpetual hub of activity, it was still mostly asleep at 5:30am yesterday morning when a small group of people from the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, including myself, lined up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building for a chance to hear arguments in the case McComish v. Bennett.
The Yankee Institute filed an amicus brief both in the petition for writ of certiorari and on the merits of the case. The very chilly morning on the sidewalk was worth it though, because when the Golden Tickets (Yes, think Willy Wonka) were handed out at 7:30am, I received ticket #11.
After a quick coffee and donut break, we entered the halls of the nation’s highest court just after 9am and heard oral arguments in our case starting just after 10am.
Originating from Arizona, McComish represented a constitutional challenge of matching grants, a critical facet of publicly-funded campaign systems present in Arizona as well as Connecticut. A crucial component, in which candidates can choose to receive public money to run their campaigns in exchange for various limitations of campaign fundraising and expenditures, is what to do when a candidate who opts out of such a program spends more than the opt-in candidates.
