DC Court Rules Campaign Contribution Limits On Individuals is Unconstitutional

The Federal Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit handed down a ruling March 26 that could mean even more political ad money flowing into the Midterm election cycle.

Saying that the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United had resolved the appeal, the court unanimously ruled in SpeechNow.org vs. the FEC that the campaign finance law contribution limits by individuals to SpeechNow, a 527 group advocating the election of federal candidates, are unconstitutional. Just as in Citizens United, the D.C. court held that while the contribution limits (or expenditure limits in the case of Citizens United) were unconstitutional, reporting and organizational requirements for the group were not. "The public has an interest in knowing who is speaking about a candidate and who is funding that speech," said the court, which also upheld the requirement that the group register as a political committee.