Is spending money on behalf of a candidate or an issue the same as speaking out in favor or in opposition to it? According the the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, it is.
In the case, a nonprofit company sued to be able to run a documentary film on cable television that some saw as a thinly disguised anti-Hillary Clinton political ad. The FEC said the film couldn’t be aired because the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law prohibited corporate funded commercials for-or-against a presidential candidate less than 30 days before the election.
Citizen’s United appealed the ruling, and the United States Supreme Court ruled that organizations such as corporations and labor unions, as well as individuals, could give money in unlimited amounts to political action committees (PACs). These so-called superPACs could bundle together contributions to either support or oppose a particular candidate or issue. The one caveat is that the committees are not allowed to directly coordinate their activities with those of a candidate’s official campaign.
How separate these are is a matter of some debate, with top campaign officials oftentimes being on the steering committees for the associated superPAC.
James Bopp, a conservative activist lawyer, argues that the court’s decision makes it possible for individuals and organizations to create more political speech through their spending. As an example, multimillionaire Sheldon Adelson helped keep Newt Gingrich’s primary run for the Republican nomination going in 2012 by making a $10 million donation to Gingrich’s superPAC. Other supporters of the decision argue that the ads supported by the superPACs create a better informed public.
Before the Citizen’s United case, an individual could spend unlimited money directly on advertising supporting or attacking a candidate, but he or she couldn’t give that money to a political action committee.
Critics of the ruling argue that it puts almost unlimited political power in the hands of those who have the most money to spend.
You can listen to the Bopp interview here: