In a closely watched freedom of speech case, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments involving purported lobbying by a grassroots nonprofit organization prior to an election, the Chicago Tribune reports.

In a suit brought against the Federal Election Commission, Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Right to Life is asking the court to carve out an exception to the "electioneering communication" provision of the campaign finance reform law, also known as the McCain-Feingold Act. The provision bars for-profit, nonprofit, and union groups from using general funds for television or radio ads that promote, attack, support, or oppose a clearly identified candidate for federal office within thirty days of a primary and sixty days of a general election.

Both WRTL, a 501(c)(4) organization, and its political action committee (PAC) were critics of Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), one of the act's authors, during his successful 2004 re-election campaign. After WRTL ran TV ads in July 2004 urging viewers to contact and pressure Feingold and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) to oppose the filibustering of White House judicial nominees, the organization filed suit against the FEC in federal court seeking to prevent the commission from barring the ads during the blackout period on the grounds that the ads were examples of grassroots lobbying and, thus, could be paid for out of its general funds.

Subsequently, a long list of nonprofits, including several abortion-rights groups, filed briefs in support of Wisconsin Right to Life. Although 501(c)(3) groups are forbidden to come out for or against political candidates or use their resources for lobbying purposes, they can set up 501(c)(4) groups, which in turn can create PACs. The groups backing WRTL's position argue that the McCain-Feingold infringes on their First Amendment rights during a period when legislative activity often is feverish, and further claim that their lobbying is a useful counterweight to corporations' efforts to influence policy through their own PACs.

The FEC, which until December exempted issue advocacy by 501(c)(3)s from the electioneering communication provision, has received support from other nonprofits, including AARP, Common Cause, and the League of Women Voters. The groups contend that WRTL's ads were thinly disguised electioneering and part of a broader effort to defeat Feingold. Moreover, the groups argue that allowing such ads to be paid for out of a nonprofit's general funds could undermine the act's restrictions on sham issue ads financed with so-called soft money.