University of Chicago Law Review: Campaign Finance, Federalism, and the Case of the Long-Armed Donor

Campaign Finance, Federalism, and the Case of the Long-Armed Donor

Todd E. Pettys†

81 U Chi L Rev Dialogue 77 

"While promoting a new book this past spring,¹ retired justice John Paul Stevens sat down for interviews with Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker and Adam Liptak of the New York Times.² In both conversations, Stevens sharply criticized the ruling that the US Supreme Court had handed down a few weeks earlier in McCutcheon v Federal Election Commission.³ In that case, Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon challenged federal aggregate limits on how much an individual may contribute during an election cycle to all federal candidates nationwide and to certain political committees.⁴ Those limits had prevented McCutcheon from donating as much money as he would have liked to a variety of political committees and to individuals running for Congress in states and districts other than his own.⁵ By a 5–4 vote, the Court struck down the aggregate limits, holding that they violated McCutcheon’s and other would-be campaign donors’ First Amendment rights.^6"