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Supreme Court Overturns Campaign Advertising Restrictions
On January 21, the Supreme Court released its long-awaited opinion in Citizens United v. FEC. The court by a 5-4 vote overturned significant existing law pertaining to spending and advertising during federal election campaigns. Commenters expect the Court’s ruling to have major impacts on federal election campaigns, including a likely increase in spending on television and radio advertisements by corporations and unions, especially during the closing weeks of a general or primary election.
Specifically, the Court:
- Overturned a long-standing prohibition on corporations using money from their general treasuries to produce and run their own campaign ads (e.g., ad spending that is not coordinated with a campaign).
- Struck down the prohibition in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (commonly called McCain-Feingold) on “electioneering communications” paid for by unions or corporations (ads referring to a federal candidate aired during the last 60 or 30 days of a general or primary election, respectively, that reach 50,000 or more persons).
- Did not directly address the prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions, which still remains in effect.
- Retained the requirement that third party political ads referring to federal candidates must include a statement that “_____ is responsible for the content of this advertising” and also must disclose (in a station’s public file) the name and address of the group that funded the ad.
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