WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down part of the campaign finance reform law that allowed federal office-seekers running against wealthy opponents to exceed normal contribution limits.
The "millionaire's amendment" to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 permitted candidates to receive larger campaign contributions when their opponents spent heavily out of their own pockets. The amendment to the law, commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Act, was viewed as an attempt to level the playing field for candidates and to prevent personal wealth from becoming a qualification for elected office.
But critics said it was a thinly disguised maneuver to protect entrenched incumbents from upstart and well-to-do challengers.
The court said in a 5-4 ruling that the amendment violated the 1st Amendment because it penalized a candidate who robustly exercised his free-speech rights by spending heavily.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said the amendment required "a candidate to choose between the 1st Amendment right to engage in unfettered political speech and subjection to discriminatory fundraising limitations."
Alito said that by attempting to level the playing field, Congress was in effect attempting to influence voters' choices.
"Different candidates have different strengths. Some are wealthy; others have wealthy supporters who are willing to make large contributions. Some are celebrities; some have the benefit of a well-known family name," Alito wrote. "Leveling electoral opportunities means making and implementing judgments about which strengths should be permitted to contribute to the outcome of an election."
Under the law, he said, those are judgments for voters alone.
The court first ruled in a 1976 case, Buckley vs. Valeo, that spending money to influence elections was a form of constitutionally protected free speech and that individual candidates could give unlimited amounts of money to their own campaign.
But it also appeared to backtrack somewhat from that position in 1990 when it held that states could limit contributions of corporations because of what the majority called "the corrosive and distorting effects" of corporate power on campaigns.
Legal experts said Thursday that by rejecting the idea that Congress could attempt to level the playing field of campaigns, the court cast doubt on the viability of its 1990 ruling, potentially imperiling state and federal limits on corporate and union contributions.
