Lagon: A Knockout Blow for Campaign Finance Laws
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010 delivered a wallop that left federal campaign finance regulations reeling, but McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission threatens to land the knockout blow. Throughout the nearly four decades since its decision in Buckley v. Valeo, the court has consistently recognized a key distinction between contributions made directly to candidates’ campaigns or party committees and independent expenditures that are not coordinated with a campaign…
Susan Sullivan Lagon is a Senior Fellow at the Government Affairs Institute.