Campaign Finance Law: A Legal Analysis of the Supreme Court Ruling in McConnell v. FEC

Publication Date: February 2004

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

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Research Area: Politics

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Abstract:

In its most comprehensive campaign finance ruling since Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, on December 10, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld against facial constitutional challenges key portions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), P.L. 107-155, also known as the McCain-Feingold or Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform law. In McConnell v. FEC, a 5 to 4 majority of the Court upheld restrictions on the raising and spending of previously unregulated political party soft money and a prohibition on corporations and labor unions using treasury funds to finance "electioneering communications," requiring that such ads may only be paid for with corporate and labor union political action committee (PAC) funds. The Court invalidated BCRA's requirement that parties choose between making independent expenditures or coordinated expenditures on behalf of a candidate and its prohibition on minors age 17 and under making campaign contributions. This report provides an analysis of the Supreme Court's major holdings in McConnell v. FEC, including a discussion of the developments leading to the enactment of BCRA, the 1976 seminal campaign finance decision, Buckley v. Valeo, and implications for future cases.