Flawed SCOTUS Campaign Finance Ruling Opens New Avenues for Billionaires and Corporations to Buy Elections

Today, by a vote of 6-3, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the long-standing 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 National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission. Public Citizen filed an amicus brief in the case arguing in support of the law.

“This Supreme Court twisted the First Amendment to help billionaires and corporations buy our elections and bend our government to their will,” said Public Citizen Democracy Advocate Jon Golinger. “We have to combat this outcome by increasing transparency so voters know who’s paying for election ads, empowering small donors and public matching funds, and passing the Democracy For All Amendment to empower Congress, the states, and the voters to put in place reasonable protections to guard against campaign finance corruption.”