SpeechNow, a 527 group (independent political committee) looking to elect federal candidates of its choosing, has asked the D.C. Court to finish the job of declaring limits on contributions by individuals to such groups unconstitutional.
Saying that the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United had resolved the appeal, the Federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on March 26 ruled that those campaign finance law contribution limits, as applied to Citizens United, were unconstitutional.
Now, the group wants the court to follow up with an order declaring the limits unconstitutional as applied not only to the individual plaintiffs in that suit but anybody else who wants to give money to the group, or, by extension, any other similarly situated group.
That March decision came in the wake of the September Citizens United decision in which the Supreme Court removed the ban on direct corporate and union funding of campaign ads, though not the reporting requirements, calling it an unconstitutional restriction on political speech.
The decision should help swell the ad coffers of TV and cable outlets as the midterm elections approach and advocacy groups start backing their favorites.
According to SCOTUSblog, which reports on the court, the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department have two weeks to respond to the request. They have not yet weighed in on whether they plan to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court to see if it agrees that removing the individual giving limits to political committees squares with its Citizens United decision.
