The Supreme Court of Wisconsin 7/7/99 affirmed the dismissal of a complaint by the Elections Board of the State of Wisconsin charging various defendants with violations of state campaign finance laws relating to broadcast advertisements about the voting records of various candidates.The court ruled that the defendants, including Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and two corporate contributors, did not have fair warning that theads could qualify as express advocacy. It threw out the complaint on due process grounds, and did not decide whether the ads actually were express advocacy.
The Court did, however, go into great detail as to what "express advocacy" is, and encouraged the state legislature and the Elections Board to define a standard of express advocacy to apply to future cases. It is relatively clear that the court will allow Wisconsin authorities to limit these kinds of ads in the future, as long as a definition similar to that described in the opinion is used.
The NAM filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the complaint because the ads did not constitute express advocacy.