15 Years of Super PACs
Super PACs ushered in a new era of speech freedoms and improved American democracy more than I imagined. And I should know—fifteen years ago, I created the first one.
On March 26, 2010, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals decided SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), unanimously striking down a provision of the Federal Election Campaign Act that capped individual contributions to independent expenditure-only committees at $5,000.
I’m proud to have been the lead plaintiff in that case. While Citizens United v. FEC is a watershed political speech case in its own right, commentators often incorrectly give it credit—or blame—for Super PACs. The anniversary of SpeechNow seems an appropriate time to set that record straight.
Citizens United established that corporations and unions could make independent expenditures in political campaigns. However, SpeechNow recognized individuals’ First Amendment right to pool their resources for independent political speech.
Why is SpeechNow still so important 15 years later? Super PACs have fundamentally delivered on their promise to expand political speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
In Buckley v. Valeo (1976), the landmark Supreme Court decision on campaign finance, the Court ruled that an individual could independently spend unlimited amounts advocating for or against a candidate. The SpeechNow decision took the next logical step. The First Amendment protects the right of two, ten, or 10,000 or more citizens to pool resources to speak as much as they want about a candidate.
What could be more American than that? Those who sh
Article from Reason.com
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