Weakening campaign finance safeguards
Judicial decisions or legislative actions that remove or diminish statutory restrictions on money in politics. It matters because public office held in trust depends on limiting how far private money can buy access or outcomes; weakening those safeguards widens that opening structurally, for everyone, rather than through any single official's conduct.
2026 Events (1)
Supreme Court struck down coordinated party-spending limits in NRSC v. FEC, overturning Colorado II
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in NRSC v. FEC on June 30, 2026 to strike down decades-old federal limits on how much money political parties can spend in direct coordination with their candidates, holding the restriction violated the First Amendment. Justice Brett Kavanaugh's majority opinion overturned the Court's 2001 precedent in FEC v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee ("Colorado II"), which had upheld coordinated-spending limits as a safeguard against circumvention of individual contribution limits. Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson dissented, warning the ruling opens a new route for large donors to funnel unlimited sums to candidates through party committees.