Emily’s Rights

Amid the thousands of pages of arguments that have been spilled on campaign finance law and the hundreds of protagonists, one to keep an eye on is a 14-year-old girl from Georgia called Emily Echols. Senators McCain and Feingold, in their wisdom, decided that if Emily wanted to give some of her allowance money to a political candidate, the federal government ought to intervene to stop her. Their view was enshrined in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. Among its provisions was a section that said, “An individual who is 17 years old or younger shall not make a contribution to a candidate or a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party.”