• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Campaign Finance>
  3. super pacs>

New longshot bid tries to persuade Supreme Court to rein in super PACs

Sara Swann
https://twitter.com/saramswann?lang=en
July 23, 2020
Campaign finance spending and the courts
alfexe/Getty Images

Sixteen states, a half-dozen progressive senators and a collection of campaign finance reform experts have launched an uphill campaign to persuade the Supreme Court to close down the nation's super PACs.

They filed briefs Wednesday asking the court to consider a fresh challenge to a central aspect of campaign finance law: A federal appeals court ruling from a decade ago that ended contribution and spending limits, but not disclosure requirements, for independent political groups that want to elect or defeat candidates — thus creating super PACs.

There is no guarantee the justices will decide to take the case after it reconvenes this fall, however. And even if they do, the court's reliably conservative majority and string of precedents promoting the deregulation of campaign finance suggest that victory for reformers is a longshot.


While the court in its most famous money-in-politics case, Citizens United v FEC, said a decade ago the First Amendment means corporations, nonprofit organizations and labor unions may spend what every they like on campaigns, it has not addressed the question posed by the new case: Is it constitutional for Congress to limit contributions to political committees that make only independent expenditures? That's what super PACs do.

A common misconception is that the Citizens United ruling gave rise to super PACs. But it was actually the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision the same year in SpeechNow.org v. FEC. So campaign finance advocates maintain the high court would not have to revisit and then spurn its Citizens United precedent in order to put a crimp into super PACs. They dished out more than $822 million to influence campaigns for Congress two years ago — an amount three quarters the size of the $1.1 billion candidates for the House and Senate spent in the aggregate.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

"Super PACs weren't created by Congress, or the U.S. Supreme Court — they were created by a lower court decision, based on faulty assumptions, that has never been reviewed or revisited," said Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech For People, a campaign finance reform nonprofit working on the new appeal.

The main plaintiff in the case Lieu v. FEC, is Ted Lieu, a Democratic congressman from California.

"I'm extremely skeptical that the court would take this case (because a majority would agree with the D.C. Circuit in SpeechNow was right that the limits on contributions to super PACs are unconstitutional)," professor Richard Hasen of the University of California at Irvine wrote in his Election Law blog. "And if the Court took the case, I believe it would only make campaign finance law even more deregulatory."

Although it may appear quixotic, the appeal has drawn a strong cast including four senators on the Judiciary Committee — Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii — and fellow Democrats Tom Udall of New Mexico and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

"A tsunami of special interest money is drowning out Americans' voices and corrupting our democracy," Whitehouse said. "At the center of the tidal wave are Super PACs through which corporations and billionaires run unlimited money to push their political agendas."

Of the 16 states that are part of the appeal, 10 have both governors and legislatures that are Democratic: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington. The rest have divided governments: Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

Other parties supporting the efforts include nine election law scholars, seven political scientists, three academic researchers and a former FEC commissioner.

From Your Site Articles
  • Five reasons unlimited spending undermines American democracy ... ›
  • The decade's top 10 stories about American democracy - The Fulcrum ›
  • High court rules against a donor's secrecy, maybe boosting disclosure ›
  • Seattle may limit influence of foreigners, super PACs - The Fulcrum ›
  • Alaska case may open door to reversing Citizens United - The Fulcrum ›
  • Congress has plenty to fix, but not the Supreme Court - The Fulcrum ›
  • Court to hear case challenging Calif. donor disclosure law - The Fulcrum ›
  • Super PACs tied to parties misled voters, complaint alleges - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Supreme Court Rejects Keeping GOP Super PAC Donor Secret (1 ... ›
  • The 'Citizens United' decision and why it matters – Center for Public ... ›
  • Senators Encourage Supreme Court to Take up Challenge to Super ... ›
  • Supreme Court Will Have Chance to Review Case Seeking to End ... ›
super pacs

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Does partisanship impact happiness?

Lynn Schmidt
6h

Return copyright to its roots: Compensate human creators

Samantha Close
7h

It’s the institutional design, stupid! With a parliamentary system, America could avoid gridlock and instability

Milind Thakar
06 February

Poll: Americans’ legislative wish list for new congress shows frustration with political systems

Benjamin Clary
06 February

Podcast: Why Democrats fail with rural voters

Our Staff
06 February

Your Take: Religious beliefs

Our Staff
03 February
Videos

Video: America's civic education gap: What can business do?

Our Staff

Video: What does it mean to be Black?

Our Staff

Video: The dignity index

Our Staff

Video: The Supreme Court and originalism

Our Staff

Video: How the baby boom changed American politics

Our Staff

Video: What the speakership election tells us about the 118th Congress webinar

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Why Democrats fail with rural voters

Our Staff
06 February

Podcast: Anti-racism: The pro-human approach

Our Staff
03 February

Podcast: 2024 Senate: Democrats have a lot of defending to do

Our Staff
02 February

Podcast: Collage: The promise of Black History Month

Our Staff
01 February
Recommended
Does partisanship impact happiness?

Does partisanship impact happiness?

Big Picture
Return copyright to its roots: Compensate human creators

Return copyright to its roots: Compensate human creators

Business & Democracy
Video: America's civic education gap: What can business do?

Video: America's civic education gap: What can business do?

Video: What does it mean to be Black?

Video: What does it mean to be Black?

It’s the institutional design, stupid! With a parliamentary system, America could avoid gridlock and instability

It’s the institutional design, stupid! With a parliamentary system, America could avoid gridlock and instability

Government
Poll: Americans’ legislative wish list for new congress shows frustration with political systems

Poll: Americans’ legislative wish list for new congress shows frustration with political systems

Government