SCOTUS Must Rule to Cap Political Party Campaign Spending to Prevent Further Corruption
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the federal limit on campaign spending coordination between political parties and candidates. This limit was passed by Congress in 1971 to guard against the corrupting effect of large campaign contributions flowing through party committees to candidates to circumvent federal limits on the amount of direct campaign contributions to candidates. The case is NRSC, ET Al. v. FEC, Et Al. Order Number 24-621.
“In the 15 years since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United abysmal decision opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate and billionaire campaign spending, the corruption of American politics has gone from bad to worse,” said Public Citizen Democracy Advocate Jon Golinger. “We hope the Court upholds the carefully drawn boundary between independent and coordinated campaign spending. In the meantime, we’re working hard to pass the recently reintroduced Democracy For All Amendment to empower Congress, the states, and the voters to put reasonable protections to guard against campaign finance corruption back in place.”
“As Public Citizen and others have repeatedly shown, the extent of the coordination between so-called outside groups and candidates is breathtaking,” said Public Citizen Government Affairs Lobbyist Craig Holman. “Our report ‘Super Connected’ found that nearly half of spending by super PACs supported only one candidate and one candidate alone, the same candidate whose former staff or major donors established and run that super PAC.”