This Tuesday, the 30th, the US Supreme Court eliminated limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and the presidency, overturning a federal electoral law that is more than 50 years old.
Buoyed by a Republican-led case that includes Vice President J.D. Vance, the court’s conservative justices were again in the majority in the latest ruling that scrapped limits set by Congress on raising and spending money to influence elections.
Party spending limits stem from the desire to prevent large donors from circumventing limits on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party, with the understanding that the amount will be spent on the candidate’s behalf.
After US President Donald Trump took office for a second term, the Federal Election Commission abandoned its defense of the law and joined Republicans in calling for it to be overturned. Democrats asked the court to uphold the order, even though there is broad consensus that spending limits have harmed political parties in an era of unlimited spending by other organizations.
