The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (“AFL-CIO”), a federation of 56 national and international labor organizations with a total membership of 11 million working men and women, files this brief amicus curiae in support of Appellant with the consent of the parties as pro- vided for in the Rules of this Court.1
INTEREST OF AMICUS
As plaintiffs in McConnell v. Federal Election Com- mission, 540 U.S. 93 (2003), the AFL-CIO and its fed- eral political committee (“the AFL-CIO Plaintiffs”) brought a facial First Amendment challenge to § 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“BCRA”) of 2002, 2 U.S.C. § 441b(b)(2) and (c) (amending the Federal Election Campaign Act (“FECA”), 2 U.S.C. § 431 et seq.), which proscribes union and corporate funding of “electioneering communications.” The AFL-CIO Plaintiffs did so because this provision criminalized the AFL-CIO’s use of the broadcast me- dium as a legislative and policy advocacy tool, falsely characterized substantial labor organization speech on matters of public concern as wholly or substan- tially electoral, and impaired union political partici- pation as a matter of law.