{"id":4881,"date":"2026-06-30T17:50:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/06\/30\/us-supreme-court-strikes-down-limits-on-campaign-spending\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:50:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:50:36","slug":"us-supreme-court-strikes-down-limits-on-campaign-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=4881","title":{"rendered":"US supreme court strikes down limits on campaign spending"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-14sl0e4\">\n<div class=\"dcr-17l77cs\">\n<figure id=\"f6a16efc-3cc4-4c83-9215-e47c977f4a98\" class=\"dcr-191xnya\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t7hdmw\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"people fill out ballots at voting booths\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/b988c32514735f9afbcf66bcaa5ac10a466e5114\/0_0_2400_1602\/master\/2400.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"310.3875\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-up96pv\"><span class=\"dcr-kogzpx\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-18mnkpm\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1294qmb\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-4sl2vt\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1mfxiaj\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Voters cast their ballots at the Community Presbyterian Church on election day in Merrick, New York, on 4 November 2025.<\/span> Photograph: James Carbone\/Newsday via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-zwabc0\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"f6a16efc-3cc4-4c83-9215-e47c977f4a98\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-1bitgpn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-1shbixy\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-qda0hp\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1e9iiy9\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Voters cast their ballots at the Community Presbyterian Church on election day in Merrick, New York, on 4 November 2025.<\/span> Photograph: James Carbone\/Newsday via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-ql9l8l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-6mja0y\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-l0wuod\">US supreme court strikes down limits on campaign spending<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1xpojbf\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1gm5ptv\">\n<p>Case stems from 2022 lawsuit challenging FEC\u2019s enforcement of limits on \u2018coordinated party expenditures\u2019<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/live\/2026\/jun\/30\/birthright-citizenship-supreme-court-donald-trump-us-politics-latest-news\" data-link-name=\"in standfirst link\">Supreme court decisions \u2013 live updates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2026\/feb\/17\/sign-up-for-the-breaking-news-us-email-to-get-newsletter-alerts-direct-to-your-inbox?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_STANDFIRST&amp;utm_campaign=BN22326&amp;utm_content=signup&amp;utm_term=standfirst&amp;utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB\" data-link-name=\"in standfirst link\">Sign up for the Breaking News US email<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-x1al2c\">\n<div class=\"dcr-11gq2tx\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-1w2vkyc\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ogvvui\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">One of the last remaining barriers between wealthy donors sending unlimited funds to federal political candidates fell after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/us-supreme-court\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">US supreme court<\/a> struck down a lower court ruling that limited spending by political parties in support of their candidates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cA BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS and, more importantly, The First Amendment!\u201d wrote Donald Trump in a post on Truth Social.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The first amendment of the US constitution includes protections for free speech, and the supreme court has repeatedly ruled that campaign spending is a form of speech.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The case, National Republican Senatorial Committee v Federal Election Commission, stems from a 2022 lawsuit by JD Vance, Republican former congressman Steve Chabot of Ohio, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, challenging the Federal Election Commission\u2019s enforcement of limits on so-called \u201ccoordinated party expenditures\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/us-supreme-court\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">US supreme court<\/a> has chipped away at restrictions on political donations and spending over the last two decades. The Citizens United v FEC ruling of 2010 struck down federal restrictions on corporate spending by independent groups influencing elections, followed in 2014 in McCutcheon v FEC, which struck down the aggregate limits on how much an individual may contribute to all candidates and committees combined in an election cycle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Together, this led to the rise of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/super-pacs\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Super Pacs<\/a> raising and spending unlimited amounts of money on campaigns, which is legal as long as there is no coordination between the organization and the candidate. Meanwhile, large contributions to joint fundraising committees allowed parties and candidates to raise funds together under their combined limits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, chairs of the Republican party\u2019s campaign committees in their respective chambers, hailed Tuesday\u2019s decision as \u201ca major win for the integrity\u201d of the US political system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThe supreme court made clear that the federal government has no authority to place arbitrary limits on how political parties support the candidates they nominate,\u201d Hudson and Scott argued. \u201cBy striking down these unconstitutional caps on coordinated spending, the court has restored core political speech and ensured parties can compete on a level playing field.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Democratic leaders, conversely, described the ruling as eliminating a key safeguard against election corruption.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cHouse and Senate Democratic candidates have consistently outraised their Republican opponents, powered by strong grassroots support from voters,\u201d the Democratic National Committee wrote in a statement with the Democratic Senate and House campaign committees. \u201cRepublicans\u2019 scheme to overturn campaign finance law is a clear and blatant effort to rewrite election rules for their own benefit and spend more money from billionaires to prop up their candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Tuesday\u2019s decision is just the latest in a long trend, campaign finance experts said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThe decision was not a surprise,\u201d said Erin Chlopak, senior director of campaign finance at Campaign Legal Center, and a former senior attorney at the Federal Election Commission. \u201cThe fact that the court took this case when there\u2019s already settled law from the supreme court question that was before the court was not a good sign to begin with. The fact that the government chose not to defend its own law also was not a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Vance and the plaintiffs argued that limits on political party spending are unnecessary when Super Pacs have no meaningful restrictions. The law as it stands \u201cseverely restrict political party committees from doing what the first amendment entitles them to do: fully associate with and advocate for their own candidates for federal office\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Trump administration supported Vance\u2019s case, leading the court to appoint outside counsel to represent the FEC, which has not had a quorum since April 2025 and cannot initiate enforcement actions. Roman Martinez, advocating to uphold the law, argued that ending the limits effectively legalizes quid pro quo political corruption, and that Vance\u2019s claim is moot because the vice-president has \u201crepeatedly denied having any concrete plan to run for office in 2028\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.NewsletterSignupBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-d9bay7\"><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-14\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-1tr4stg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-12qa5gp\">\n<hr class=\"dcr-1cjdlyj\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-14\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The ruling undermines laws that were meant to prevent the creation of the kind of slush fund that led to Richard Nixon\u2019s Watergate scandal, according to Eric Petry, counsel in the Brennan Center\u2019s Elections and Government Program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThis is another example of the court\u2019s drive to destroy anti-corruption laws and drive to undermine campaign finance laws in this country,\u201d Petry said. \u201cThe court has just been extremely hostile to any sort of restriction on campaign finance limits in adopting this really radical and wrong interpretation of the first amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Justices opined that their rulings should not be expected to lead to broad evasions of campaign finance rules that have continued to escalate, Petry said. \u201cWe saw donors like Elon Musk spending a quarter of a billion dollars in the \u201824 election cycle through their own Super Pacs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">It was not clear how much of an impact this ruling will have because the state of campaign finance regulation today is deeply compromised, he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">A fully appointed Federal Election Commission has six members, with no more than three from any single political party. Without at least four members, it cannot take substantive action such as opening an investigation, issuing fines, or creating new rules. It currently has two members, and Trump has refrained from appointing more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Corporations and wealthy people are pouring money through the gap, particularly among technology firms facing public backlash over datacenter placement and artificial intelligence policy. \u201cAI spending is already the largest spending loop, and they have lots of money in their war chest,\u201d said Petry. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be a huge story over the next several months, and going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-swayiu\"><span class=\"dcr-1xhbmzr\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-2c03t5\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-p7nd18\">\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-supreme-court\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">US supreme court<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-politics\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">US politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/super-pacs\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Super Pacs<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-political-financing\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">US political financing<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-313bdz\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=US%20supreme%20court%20strikes%20down%20limits%20on%20campaign%20spending&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jun\/30\/supreme-court-spending-political-candidates-ruling?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-ncybeu\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-19bkree\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fjun%2F30%2Fsupreme-court-spending-political-candidates-ruling&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/jun\/30\/supreme-court-spending-political-candidates-ruling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-1c41onw\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-axwinp\"><span class=\"dcr-1ryr20k\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Voters cast their ballots at the Community Presbyterian Church on election day in Merrick, New York, on 4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}