Buckley v. Valeo

The Supreme Court ruled restrictions on political funding were unconstitutional

The 1976 Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited spending by individuals or groups who are not standing for election themselves but who wish to support or oppose particular candidates.

The provision does not apply to contributiuons made by corporations or unions and rules that in any donor situation there must be no co-ordination or consultation with any candidate.

For example any individual or lobby group can decide to spend $5 million running advertisements telling people not to vote for candidate X, so long as they do not talk to candidate Y's party or any other party or candidate.

The court's decision effectively overruled two major parts of the 1974 Federal Election Campaign Act which imposed mandatory spending limits on all federal races, and limited independent spending on behalf of federal candidates.

The court ruled that such restrictions violated an individual's First Amendment rights to freedom of expression.

This is because limits on spending "necessarily reduces the quantity of expression by restricting the number of issues discussed, the depth of their exploration, and the size of the audience reached."