WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell turned Thursday to some of the nation's top election and constitutional law experts to prepare a legal challenge to campaign finance reform.

        The six-member legal team will be led by Kenneth Starr, the former independent counsel who investigated President Clinton, and Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer who represented the New York Times in the Pentagon papers case.

McConnell

        Mr. McConnell, R-Ky., and his lawyers expect to file a lawsuit against the reform bill soon after President Bush signs it into law.

        The Senate, expecting a lawsuit, agreed to allow both Mr. McConnell and the bill's supporters to receive free legal assistance. The lawsuit, unlike others that have to wind through the courts, will be heard by a three-judge federal panel here and likely proceed to the Supreme Court.

        Although the legal team has not settled on all the specifics of its case, the challenge likely will concentrate on the “soft money” and broadcast advertising restrictions in the reform bill. The legislation bans unlimited soft-money donations by individuals, corporations and labor unions to the national political parties for party building activities and restricts the use of soft money for broadcast advertising that mentions candidates in the days before federal primary and general elections.

        The lawsuit likely will not attack an increase in the amount of direct contributions to candidates also contained in the bill. Congress added a provision that would preserve surviving sections of the law if courts struck down some of its parts.

        Don Simon, general counsel for the reform group Common Cause, said supporters of reform expected a quick legal challenge but are confident the courts will decide in their favor. Buckley v. Valeo, the landmark 1976 Supreme Court case on campaign finance, held that candidates or groups could spend unlimited amounts of money on political speech but that federal contribution limits to candidates were proper to discourage corruption.

        Mr. Simon described soft money donations, which accounted for nearly $500 million in donations to the national parties in the 2000 election cycle, as the “most corrupting money in the political process today.”

        However, Mr. Starr said the bill raises grave questions about free speech. “It is unfortunate that there is a concerted effort to make speech less robust,” he said.

        The other members of Mr. McConnell's legal team are Kathleen Sullivan, dean of the Stanford University Law School; James Bopp, general counsel to the James Madison Center for Free Speech; Bobby Burchfield, an election and campaign-finance lawyer; and Jan Baran, an election lawyer and former counsel to the Republican National Committee.

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