Below is a transcript of an exchange at the AmericanForum: How we finance our political campaigns debate, about the first case litigated under the Federal Elections Campaign Act:

Bradley A. Smith: What was the first lawsuit that ever was that was brought under the federal campaign act? It was brought by the Nixon administration against a group of citizens basically professors, successful professionals, middle class, upper middle class citizens who took out an ad in the New York Times urging that Nixon be impeached. And President Nixon said they’r urging I could be impeached they shouldn’t be influencing any election they have to register as a political committee and the justice department sued them and the ACLU defended the group successfully. So when we talk about the abuse of the Nixon administration we try to live on Watergate. You know it’s 40 years old we can’t live on it forever.

Ann Ravel: Well we have to remember it. We have to remember it because you are suggesting we go back.

Bradley A. Smith: Well, no but we have to remember other things as well like the passage of the voting rights act and a Congress that worked and an America that was strong and prosperous, a democracy that seemed to be going someplace. We can remember all that too and recognize that we don’t need to blow up everything because we had one big scandal 40 years ago.