How a 50-Year-Old Supreme Court Case Shaped the Politics Industry

It’s been 50 years since the Supreme Court ruled that federal limits on election spending violated the First Amendment of the Constitution. Americans still aren’t all that happy about it, according to a new poll. 

The decision in Buckley v. Valeo, which reached its 50-year anniversary on Friday, held that campaign expenditures amounted to a type of protected “speech” and effectively opened the floodgates to the high-dollar campaigns that define modern elections – and the business of politics. 

Since then, the Supreme Court has leaned on that 1976 ruling to lift restrictions on other types of political spending. Writing for the majority in Citizens United v. FEC, for example, Justice Anthony Kennedy equated limits on political spending by corporations and other outside groups to unconstitutional restrictions on their speech.

The Supreme Court is also currently weighing arguments in a case concerning limits on coordinated party expenditures. Republicans argue that Republicans argue that those limits amount to an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.

Put simply, Dan Backer, a veteran political attorney for Republicans, said: “Buckley’s legacy is today’s campaign finance reality.”

“Political speech is highly protected and government actors cannot easily silence speech they don’t like – which they always try to do…and thank goodness it’s hard,” Backer wrote in an email. 

Of course, Backer added, the ruling also delivered a massive financial boon to the politics business, which has transformed into a multi-billion-dollar industry over the past five decades.

“For the political industry, though, it’s worth noting the freer speech gets with each new de-regulatory decision, the more money enters the public marketplace in the debate of ideas, and the more political vendors are able to buy those second boats,” he added.

But while the decision in Buckley may have helped unleash a torrent of money into the campaign industry, it has also irked many Americans, who say that the influence of big money in politics has watered down the democratic process and the ability of ordinary citizens to shape their own government, according to a new poll from the nonprofit American Promise.

That survey, which was conducted Jan. 9-11 by Ipsos, found that 81 percent of U.S. adults – including 78 percent of Republicans, 90 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of independents – say they’re concerned about how money sways politics. Overall, 68 percent of respondents say they believe that wealthy donors have more influence than they did a decade ago, while 76 percent say that those high-dollar donors make it more difficult for ordinary Americans to have their voices heard. 

There’s also broad agreement that both Congress and the states should be able to impose reasonable regulations on spending in campaigns and elections. That includes 68 percent of Republicans, 83 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of independents, according to the poll. 

“Most Americans do not believe unlimited spending should be treated as protected speech,” American Promise’s co-founder and CEO Jeff Clements said. “And here’s the thing – we never chose this corrupt system. It was created by bad Supreme Court decisions over the last 50 years.”