Supreme Court weighs Republican appeal to end limits on party spending in federal elections
WASHINGTON AP The Supreme Court is considering a Republican-led drive backed by President Donald Trump s administration to overturn a quarter-century-old decision and erase limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and president A day after the justices indicated they would overturn a -year-old decision limiting the president s power to fire independent agency heads the court is revisiting a decision that upheld a provision of federal polling law that is more than years old Democrats are calling on the court to uphold the law The limits stem from a desire to prevent large donors from skirting caps on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party with the understanding that the money will be spent on behalf of the candidate The Federal Voting process Commission and the GOP argue that the court should cast a skeptical eye on the limits in line with up-to-date high court decisions Led by Chief Justice John Roberts a conservative majority has upended a variety of congressionally enacted limits on raising and spending money to influence elections The court s Citizens United decision opened the door to unlimited independent spending in federal elections After the Trump administration joined with Republicans to ask the court to strike down the campaign finance law the justices appointed a lawyer to defend it Roman Martinez an experienced Supreme Court advocate is offering the justices a way out of the episode without deciding anything Instead they should hold the occurrence is moot now that the FEC agrees with Republicans that the law is unconstitutional and there is no credible danger the agency will try to enforce it Martinez wrote The Republican committees for House and Senate candidates filed the lawsuit in Ohio in joined by two Ohio Republicans in Congress then-Sen JD Vance now vice president and then-Rep Steve Chabot In the coordinated party spending for Senate races ranges from in several states with small populations to nearly million in California For House races the limits are in states with only one representative and everywhere else Source
