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01.27.10

ACLU Statement on Campaign Finance

For more than 20 years, ACLU policy has been that limitations on contributions or expenditures for the purpose of advocating causes or candidates in the public forum impinge directly on freedom of speech and association, and that their implementation poses serious dangers to the First Amendment. The policy states that the appropriate civil liberties approach is to expand, not limit, the resources available for political advocacy, and states that public financing of campaign activity is a promising way to facilitate the opportunity for political participation. The policy also points out that full disclosure of large contributions is an effective antidote to improper influence by contributors over elected officials.

In a brief filed in the Citizens United case recently decided by the Supreme Court, the ACLU argued that the restrictions laid out in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (the McCain-Feingold Act) do not comply with the First Amendment because the Act’s language regarding the banned “electioneering communications” is so vague as to leave both for-profit and non-profit corporations with too much uncertainty about what political speech is permissible, creating a chilling and unconstitutional suppression of speech and the potential for arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement of the law. The recent decision by the Supreme Court was much broader. Although there were a variety of narrower grounds on which the case could have been decided, the court went beyond those narrow grounds to find that any restrictions on campaign spending by corporations and unions for partisan speech are unconstitutional.

The ACLU is aware that the issues involved in campaign finance law are extremely complex and touch upon many civil liberties interests. Political speech and the right to engage in it freely is a cornerstone of our democracy, as is the integrity of our electoral process. A committee of the ACLU Board formed in January 2007 is presently studying these issues to consider whether current ACLU policy regarding campaign finance law should be amended.


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