The one intelligent thing that Congress did when it passed the free speech restrictions known as “campaign finance reform” last year was insert a clause requiring the Supreme Court to review any decision by the three-judge panel that made an initial ruling on Friday. The decision is a mess and leaves many patently unconstitutional provisions standing. It will certainly take the genius of Justice Scalia et al. to sort this one out.

Two of the judges on the panel found that Congress was within its powers in forbidding the parties from using soft money to purchase attack ads; those same judges, however, found that Congress could not forbid the parties from using that same money for party registration or getting out the vote. Only our judicial elites can draw those kinds of distinctions.

One judge, Karen Henderson, did conclude that the entire ban on soft money is unconstitutional. One can only hope that it will be her decision that is the jumping off point for the Supreme Court, as it tries to untangle the mess ahead of the 2004 campaign. Already the national parties are trying to figure out what soft-money can be raised or spent. The right way forward is that illuminated by Judge Henderson.