THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608040092
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY O'DELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 51 lines
A federal appeals court Friday upheld the dismissal of a Federal Election Commission complaint against the Christian Action Network, which ran ads in fall 1992 claiming that Bill Clinton supported special rights for homosexuals.
Clinton, at the time, was the Democratic candidate for president.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came three days after the FEC sued the Christian Coalition, alleging it illegally endorsed Republican candidates for Congress and president in 1990, 1992 and 1994.
Christian Coalition lawyer Jim Bopp of Terre Haute, Ind., said the ruling could help the coalition's defense of its practice of distributing voter guides listing candidates' stands on issues.
``This is another in a long list of defeats of the FEC when they've sought to suppress the right of citizens and citizens' groups to discuss issues regarding candidates,'' Bopp said.
FEC spokeswoman Sharon Snyder said she had not seen the ruling and could not comment.
Martin Mawyer, president of the nonprofit Christian Action Network, said he was pleased with the ruling. It should, he said, ``be further proof that the recent lawsuit against the Christian Coalition is unfounded and a further waste of taxpayer money.''
The FEC had accused the Forest, Va.-based network of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act by using nonprofit money to buy ads that advocated the defeat of a presidential candidate.
The television commercials aired in 25 cities. They claimed that Clinton supported special rights for homosexuals. They showed scenes from gay rights marches and asked, ``Is this your vision of a better America?''
Similar newspaper ads ran in some newspapers.
The appeals court said it agreed with the reasoning of U.S. District Judge James C. Turk of Roanoke, who dismissed the complaint in July 1995.
``The advertisements at issue do not contain explicit words or imagery advocating electoral action,'' Turk said at the time. ``Therefore, the advertisements are fully protected as `political speech' under the First Amendment.''
The appeals court added that ``it would be inappropriate for us . . . to even inquire whether the identification of a candidate as pro-homosexual constitutes advocacy for, or against, that candidate.''
Christian Action Network was started six years ago by Mawyer, a former Moral Majority employee. The organization says it supports ``traditional family values.''
KEYWORDS: FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION by CNB