Listen: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/americandemocracyminute/episodes/2022-05-18T08_57_33-07_00
Today’s Links:
SCOTUS Opinion
Articles on FEC v. Cruz:  Talking Points Memo, Election Law Blog, The Guardian
Campaign Finance Reform Groups:  Campaign Legal Center, Public Citizen, Brennan Center

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping your government by and for the people.

You may have missed it, but there was a U.S. Supreme Court decision on campaign finance last week.  One of the remaining provisions in the 2002 McCain–Feingold Campaign Finance Act, kept candidates making loans to their campaign late in the election cycle from paying themselves back more than $250,000 after the election.  It was intended to keep candidates from personally benefiting – or being influenced– from donations after the election. 

FEC vs. Cruz – yes, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz – contested this rule.  Senator Cruz contended that it infringes on potential expenditures by candidates, and limits their self-expression. The Court “ruled that this was a “great burden” on free speech and wasn’t justified by the potential for corruption. 

The court cited the 2014 McCutcheon case, which struck down the combined limits which could be made to candidates, parties and political action committees.  In FEC v. Cruz, the court said, “However well intentioned such proposals may be, the First Amendment—as this Court has repeatedly emphasized—prohibits such attempts to tamper with the ‘right of citizens to choose who shall govern them.’   The justices were split – you guessed it – along partisan lines.

A May 17th article in The Atlantic Daily by David Graham suggests that despite overwhelming public opinion that there should be limits on campaign funding, there is no appetite on one side of the aisle in Congress to curb it.  

We have more information and links to ways to take action on money in politics at our website, AmericanDemocracyMinute.org/  

Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we have, it’s something we DO.” 

For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.