You've added a page to your Web site on which you express a political opinion - say, you want Congressperson A dumped in favor of Candidate 1. At minimum, you're subject to Federal disclosure laws on campaign finance. At maximum, you've become, God help you, a one-man political action committee.
That's the Federal Election Commission for you - believe it, or not. A peculiar FEC ruling had a Connecticut man learn the hard way this month, even daring the FEC to prosecute him for exercising his individual free speech rights. We're not making this one up, folks.
The law requires you to disclose your identity and register your contact information if you spend over $250 donating cash or expressing your political views. Now the Federal Election Commission has made what the American Civil Liberties Union calls a "bizarre" ruling related to that law, in the case of a Connecticut man who added a political page to his Web site last year.
"The victim of the ruling basically told the FEC to stick it where the sun don't shine and dared them to prosecute him," says Netsurfer Digest. But the case has also triggered legislation in Congress to exempt such expressions of political opinion from FEC reporting requirements.
It began when Leo Smith decided to do more than complain about his frustration over Congress's effort to impeach President Clinton. He added a new section to his Web site calling for the defeat of his Congresswoman, Rep. Nancy Johnson, and urged fellow voters to elect Charlotte Koskoff.
Within days, the ACLU says, Koskoff's campaign manager called "not to thank him but to warn him of the possible legal problems he might face over the site." Smith ultimately learned from the FEC that because he'd spent more than $250 expressing his views without disclosing his identity or filing required disclosure reports, he had violated Federal law.
Yet it cost Smith nothing but time to put the page up, the ACLU says. The FEC determined his Web site's value by determining the cost of computer hardware and software used to create the page. If the computer cost over $250, the owner would have to meet filing and disclosure requirements, the ACLU says - and by that logic, it continues, if the computer costs over $1,000, its owner would have to register as a political action committee.
"Forget about free speech - if you can't advocate what you want for an election, that strikes at the heart of our democracy," Smith told the ACLU.
The Smith flap triggered action from Republican Senators Robert Bennett, Slate Gordon, and Mitch McConnell to put up an amendment exempting political speech on the Internet by individuals from federal regulation. The ACLU is backing the amendment, although it stays opposed to the main components of the campaign finance reform bill to which it was attached.
