Van Hollen Statement on Supreme Court's McCutcheon Decision

Press Release

Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen issued the following statement on the Supreme Court's decision in McCutcheon v. FEC regarding the integrity of our campaign finance system, which eliminated the caps on the aggregate contributions that an individual can give to Federal candidates and to party committees:

"The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, has handed down another blow to our democracy. This Court has overturned nearly 40 years of jurisprudence that was specifically designed to guard against corruption and the appearance of corruption in the election of public officials."

BACKGROUND

Aggregate campaign limits currently exist in addition to "base" limits on campaign contributions to candidates and political parties. In Buckley v. Valeo, the Court, in upholding the existing aggregate contribution limit, held that "this quite modest restraint upon protected political activity was no more than a corollary of the base limits that the Court had determined to be permissible anti-corruption measure". In 1976, the Court maintained that that aggregate limits served to prevent evasion of the base limit (by the use of un-earmarked contributions to party committees). The Court's rationale in Buckley was based on a concern for actual corruption in addition to the appearance of corruption from unlimited contributions which justified what the Court viewed as merely marginal restrictions on speech.

Source