Washington, DC – On news this morning that the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal aggregate campaign contribution limits in a ruling in McCutcheon v. FEC, Constitutional Accountability Center issued the following reaction: 

“In the last two terms the Court has made it easier to spend and harder to vote, with our democracy suffering as a consequence. The Court purports to rely on precedent, mainly Citizens United, but ignores earlier rulings that recognized that large campaign contributions corrupt our system of democracy.  This Supreme Court does not understand corruption, but the Founders did. The Court’s failure to heed the wisdom of its predecessors and our Nation’s Founders leaves America’s campaign finance laws in a shambles of the Court’s own making. The Court suggests that Congress can fix the problems the Court has created, but it surely knows that with the current gridlock in Congress that is exceedingly unlikely.”

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Resources:

CAC “friend of the court” brief, on behalf of Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig, in McCutcheon v. FEC: http://theusconstitution.org/sites/default/files/briefs/CAC-McCutcheon-v-FEC-Amicus-Brief.pdf

“Supreme Court Showdown Over Corruption: The Justices Debate McCutcheon v. FEC,” David H. Gans

October 11, 2013: http://theusconstitution.org/text-history/2261/supreme-court-showdown-over-corruption-justices-debate-mccutcheon-v-fec

“Big Battles Brewing Over the Constitution’s Original Meaning,” Doug Kendall, Tom Donnelly, October 2, 2013: http://theusconstitution.org/text-history/2237/big-battles-brewing-over-constitution%E2%80%99s-original-meaning

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Constitutional Accountability Center (www.theusconstitution.org) is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history.

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