A Federal Appeals Court unanimously upheld North Carolina's judicial public funding law, and found that the public funding system furthered First Amendment values:

Relying on extensive precedent from around the country, and particularly on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1976 decision in Buckley v. Valeo, the Fourth Circuit found that North Carolina's disbursement of matching funds to voluntary participants in the public financing system "furthers, not abridges, pertinent First Amendment values." Likewise, the court found that Act's reporting and disclosure requirements "advance" the state's important interests in "providing the electorate with information" and in "deterring actual corruption" and the appearance thereof.

Via The Brennan Center

And in other North Carolina news, Chapel Hill is considering publicly-funded municipal elections.

Laura MacCleery and Andrew Stengel propose that it's time to give the Presidential Public Funding system an Extreme Makeover to reflect current campaign realities, like the varying cost of media markets.

Nick Nyhart writes about something we've been harping on lately: despite the "small donor revolution" fueling Obama's and Ron Paul's campaigns, congressional candidates are relying on the big-check donors MORE than they used to. As a fundraising tool and communications medium, the Internet has already done a lot of good for democracy. But it is not a panacea for a fundamentally broken campaign finance system.

Hillary had Hollywood locked up, but she left the uber-networked and wealthy Silicon Valley crowd open for Obama -- big mistake. The Atlantic outlines "How Silicon Valley made Barack Obama this year’s hottest start-up".

Obama outraised Hillary in North Carolina AND Indiana, but lost the latter anyway. Money can't buy an election when your opponent has enough to be heard.

And finally, Common Blog writes about how to keep organizing and keep working for reform when those around you seem uninterested.