In a 6-3 decision Monday, the Supreme Court upheld Missouri’s caps on campaign contributions, potentially clearing the way for limits lower than the $1,000 federal threshold.
After years of doubt over the current Court’s take on campaign finance reform and the First Amendment, the ruling in Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC underlines the Court’s support for limits on contributions as a way to prevent corruption in government. And the justices agreed that the 1976 ruling in Buckley v. Valeo did not require states to come up with extensive “empirical evidence” of actual corruption to justify limiting contributions.
