McConnell v. FEC


McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 540 U.S. 93, is a case in which the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of most of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, often referred to as the McCain–Feingold Act.
The case takes its name from Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, and the Federal Election Commission, the federal agency that oversees U.S. campaign finance laws.
It was partially overruled by Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310.

History

The case was brought by groups such as the California Democratic Party and the National Rifle Association, and individuals including U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, then the Senate Majority Whip, who argued that BCRA was an unconstitutional infringement on their First Amendment rights. McConnell had been a longtime opponent of BCRA in the Senate, and had led several Senate filibusters to block its passage.
In early 2002, a multi-year effort by senators John McCain and Russell Feingold to reform the way money is raised and spent on political campaigns culminated in the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 a ban on unrestricted donations made directly to political parties limits on the advertising that unions, corporations, and non-profit organizations can engage in up to 60 days prior to an election; and 3) restrictions on political parties' use of their funds for advertising on behalf of candidates.
In May 2003, a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled three sections of the challenged provisions unconstitutional, and upheld two other sections. The District Court's ruling was stayed during the appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

Oral arguments

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a special session on September 8, 2003. On December 10, 2003, it issued a complicated decision totaling 272 pages in length, that, with a 5-4 majority, upheld the key provisions of McCain-Feingold including the "electioneering communication" provisions ; and the "soft money" ban.

Opinions

Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer established the majority for two parts of the Court's opinion:
  • With respect to Titles I and II of BCRA, O'Connor and Stevens jointly wrote the opinion of the Court.
  • With respect to Title V of BCRA, Breyer wrote the Court's opinion.
Because the regulations dealt mostly with soft-money contributions that were used to register voters and increase attendance at the polls, not with campaign expenditures, the Court held that the restriction on free speech was minimal. It then found that the restriction was justified by the government's legitimate interest in preventing "both the actual corruption threatened by large financial contributions and... the appearance of corruption" that might result from those contributions.
In response to challenges that the law was too broad and unnecessarily regulated conduct that had not been shown to cause corruption, the Court found that such regulation was necessary to prevent the groups from circumventing the law. O'Connor and Stevens wrote that "money, like water, will always find an outlet" and that the government was therefore justified in taking steps to prevent schemes developed to get around the contribution limits.
The Court also rejected the argument that Congress had exceeded its authority to regulate elections under Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution. The Court found that the law only affected state elections in which federal candidates were involved and also that it did not prevent states from creating separate election laws for state and local elections.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote an opinion on titles III and IV of the BCRA, joined by O'Connor, Souter, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, and by the other justices with respect to parts of the opinion. The Chief Justice's opinion struck down the provision banning political contributions by minors but ruled that the appellants lacked standing with regard to the rest of the challenges to titles III and IV.
Two dissenting opinions were included in the decision:
  • Stevens, joined by Ginsburg and Breyer, dissented on one section of the part of the Court's opinion written by Rehnquist.
  • Rehnquist, joined by Scalia and Kennedy, issued a 15-page dissent against the Court's opinion with respect to Titles I and V of the BCRA.
Three other justices wrote separate opinions on the decision:
  • Kennedy issued a 68-page opinion with an appendix, concurring in part and dissenting in part, noting that BCRA forces "speakers to abandon their own preference for speaking through parties and organizations."
  • Scalia issued a separate 19-page opinion, a "few words of own," because of the "extraordinary importance" of the cases. He argued this standard is an example of incumbents attempting to protect themselves, noting incumbents raise three-times as much hard-money.
  • Justice Clarence Thomas issued a separate 25-page opinion arguing that the Court was upholding the "most significant abridgment of the freedoms of speech and association since the Civil War."

Reception

The holding of the case was determined to be very confusing, although many news sources accurately summarized the main holdings. The Federal District Court for the District of Columbia's opinion is likely the longest opinion ever issued by a court in the United States: the opinion was 743 pages.