Per Reuters:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday further undermined campaign finance restrictions and handed a victory to Senator Ted Cruz, striking down as a free speech violation part of a bipartisan 2002 law challenged by the Texas Republican that federal officials had called an anti-corruption provision.
The justices, in a 6-3 ruling, found that a $250,000 cap on the amount of money political candidates can be reimbursed after an election for personal loans to their own campaigns ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech by unjustifiably burdening political expression.
In a scathing dissent, Justice Kagan wrote:
“In striking down the law today, the court greenlights all the sordid bargains Congress thought right to stop.
Politicians will know that such payments will go directly to them via the campaign and the donors will hope for something in return.
The politician is happy; the donors are happy. The only loser is the public. It inevitably suffers from government corruption.”
-Justice Elena Kagan
