Washington Post

    Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and MoveOn.org Voter Fund, two outside groups that played key roles in the 2004 presidential election, reached an agreement with the Federal Election Commission to pay nearly $450,000 for various violations.

    The two groups, along with the League of Conservation Voters, settled charges that they failed "to register and file disclosure reports as federal political committees and accepted contributions in violation of federal limits and source prohibitions," the FEC said in a statement Wednesday.

    The commission approved the three settlements on a vote of 6-0.

    The group listed as Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth will pay $299,500. In the 2004 campaign, the group leveled unsubstantiated allegations about Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry's military record in Vietnam.

    MoveOn.org will pay $150,000. The liberal organization challenged President Bush on various issues in the campaign.

    The League of Conservation Voters will pay $180,000. The group ran anti-Bush ads on environmental issues.

    The civil penalties were the first of this magnitude since the Supreme Court upheld most of the campaign finance law passed by Congress in 2002 that barred political parties from raising unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals.

    The FEC concluded that the three 527 organizations violated campaign finance laws because they expressly stated their desire to influence the presidential election in their fundraising, their public statements or their advertisements. Such activity, the FEC said, could only be conducted by political committee registered with the FEC that abide by contribution limits and public disclosure requirements.


Regardless of which side these groups were on, I think they got a raw deal. Basically, they were fined for admitting that they were engaged in trying to express their opinions on matters of national importance.

What's the whole point of the First Amendment if not to allow people the right to freely associate and freely comment on elections?