Lawyers for a Sidley Austin associate and a doctor on Thursday urged a three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., to find unconstitutional the inability of foreign nationals who live and work in the United States from making monetary contributions to political candidates.

The associate, Benjamin Bluman, and the doctor, Asenath Steiman, sued the Federal Elections Commission in October in Washington federal district court, saying the restrictions imposed on them violate First Amendment speech rights.