On June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated federal party coordinated expenditure limits, opening the door to unlimited coordination between national party organisations and their candidates.
The Court ruled 6-3 in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission that limits on political party spending coordinated with candidates violate the First Amendment.
Justice Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion, concluding that the sole legitimate basis for campaign finance restrictions is preventing quid pro quo corruption, or the appearance of it.
The Court rejected the argument that donors seeking to exchange contributions for political favours could funnel money through parties to circumvent existing candidate contribution limits.
Instead, the Court found that existing earmarking rules and modern disclosure requirements already make the coordinated expenditure limits unnecessary to prevent corruption.
Political parties must still abide by applicable contribution limits when raising funds, but the artificial barriers between parties and candidates that have existed since the mid-1970s no longer apply to party spending.
Under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974, coordinated party expenditure limits ranged from $65,300 for most U.S. House elections to as much as $4,071,800 for Senate races in California.
Analysts at Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky and Josefiak describe the ruling as the most significant change to the federal campaign financing system since Citizens United, as it fundamentally reorders the working relationship between parties and candidates.
One immediate consequence is that national party committees’ independent expenditure units are expected to become obsolete, potentially replaced by coordination units fully integrated with campaign operations.
Coordinated advertising also carries a practical cost advantage, as it qualifies for lowest unit charge rates under Federal Communications Commission rules, while independent advertising does not.
Candidates in battleground districts and states will see an immediate increase in party funding, with party committees now better positioned to assist those facing fundraising disadvantages after contested primaries.
Justice Kavanaugh noted in his opinion that the ruling “will allow all political parties, including the DNC and RNC and the respective Senate and House campaign committees, as well as other parties and party committees, to participate more freely and compete more fully in the political process.”
Minor political parties and local party committees will also be able to engage in unlimited coordinated spending with their candidates, potentially providing a significant boost to outsider campaigns.
Super PACs are expected to remain major players, retaining the ability to raise unlimited funds from individuals and other sources prohibited from contributing directly to party committees.
Justice Kavanaugh suggested that the previous coordinated party expenditure limits had “consigned political parties to continued second-tier status as compared to outside groups,” a dynamic the ruling now seeks to correct.