Independent expenditures deregulated; Super PACs follow within months.
Supreme Court decides Citizens United v. FEC
Event Not yet reviewed This page has not yet been through the automated review pipeline.The Supreme Court holds that independent political expenditures by corporations and unions cannot be limited. Together with SpeechNow.org v. FEC in March 2010 and two FEC advisory opinions that July, the ruling produced the independent-expenditure-only committees known as Super PACs.
Sources
- 01.
Supreme Court of the United States. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310. (2010). Slip opinion in No. 08-205, announced 21 January 2010, hosted by the FEC. The Court's own supremecourt.gov copy at /opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf no longer resolves; the archive link is a 2010 capture of it. Official U.S. Reports pagination (558 U.S. 310) is in the bound volume at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf.
- 02.
Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission — opinion of the Court (Kennedy, J.). (2010). Full text of the majority opinion, authored by Justice Kennedy; Chief Justice Roberts filed a concurrence.
- 03.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission, 599 F.3d 686 (D.C. Cir. 2010) (en banc). (2010). Argued 27 January 2010, decided 26 March 2010, No. 08-5223. Held contribution limits unconstitutional as applied to groups making only independent expenditures, while upholding disclosure and registration requirements.
- 04.
Federal Election Commission. FEC approves two advisory opinions on independent expenditure-only political committees (AO 2010-09, AO 2010-11). (2010). Approved 22 July 2010. These opinions, not the Citizens United ruling by itself, established that such committees may accept unlimited contributions — the step that made Super PACs operable.
- 05.
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, Pub. L. No. 107-155. (2002). The statute whose §203 electioneering-communication ban the Court struck down. Commonly called McCain-Feingold after the Senate companion bill sponsored by Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold; the measure that became Pub. L. 107-155 was H.R. 2356.
- 06.
Federal Election Commission. Independent expenditures. Primary reporting data for independent expenditures by election cycle, the record of post-2010 outside spending.
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January 21, 2010
Supreme Court decides Citizens United v. FEC
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