In a significant boost to the influence of money in politics, the right-wing majority of the Supreme Court struck down the aggregate limits on Federal campaign contributions. In their opinion, the Justices said that the overall cap on combined contributions to Federal candidates was a violation of the First Amendment. That means while an individual's contributions to a specific candidate remain capped at $2,600, the limit that an individual can contribute to all Federal candidates ($48,600) or a party campaign ($74,600) no longer applies.
Public Citizen's Robert Weissman reacted to the ruling by saying,
"This is truly a decision establishing plutocrat rights. The Supreme Court today holds that the purported right of a few hundred superrich individuals to spend outrageously large sums on campaign contributions outweighs the national interest in political equality and a government free of corruption."America's tycoons (like the one that brought the suit, wing nut businessman Shaun McCutcheon) believe they have the right to buy politicians who will do their bidding while in office. That was why a century ago, political reformists including President Theodore Roosevelt tried to limit the role of the plutocrats in politics. The ruling by the Roberts Court moves us closer to those days of the corrupting influence of big money.
