Title: The Right to “Do Politics” and Not Just to Speak: Thinking About the Constitutional Protections for Political Action
Abstract: For a half century, campaign finance jurisprudence has turned on the Supreme Court’s distinction between political contributions and campaign expenditures. In Buckley v. Valeo, the Court upheld the Federal Election Campaign Act’s limits on political contributions to candidates for federal office and struck down various provisions that had limited campaign expenditures made by candidates, campaigns, and individuals. In upholding the contribution limits, the Court concluded that contributions implicate rights of speech and association, but only up to a point. It was “speech by proxy” through which the donor surrendered control of the use of the funds, and therefore the precise message funded, to the recipient. By contrast, the expenditure is purer expression, because the funder and the spender are the same and the money spent travels from the wallet of
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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