- Alpha #2 now due 3 Nov.; Alpha #1 returned this Thur.

- 27 Oct. quiz is now open-book, open-notes

Does ‘Money’ Harm ‘Politics’?

- do candidates seek donors rather than votes?

- Donors get privileged access after elections

o Wealthy have easier time gain access to politicians

Limiting Money in Politics

- 1974 amendments to 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)

o set up Federal Election Commission (FEC)

o established public matching funds with caps for primary and general elections

o disclosure over $200

o limited contributions broadly

- Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

o Challenged limits in 1974 FECA amendments

§ Personal expenditure limits

§ Candidates private expenditure limits

o Freedom of speech issues

o What the law did:

1. The $1,000 Limitation on Expenditures "Relative to a Clearly Identified Candidate"

Section 608 (e) (1) provides that "[n]o person may make any expenditure . . . relative to a clearly identified candidate during a calendar year which, when added to all other expenditures made by such person during the year advocating the election or defeat of such candidate, exceeds $1,000." 45 The plain effect of 608 (e) (1) is to [424 U.S. 1, 40] prohibit all individuals, who are neither candidates nor owners of institutional press facilities, and all groups, except political parties and campaign organizations, from voicing their views "relative to a clearly identified candidate" through means that entail aggregate expenditures of more than $1,000 during a calendar year. The provision, for example, would make it a federal criminal offense for a person or association to place a single one-quarter page advertisement "relative to a clearly identified candidate" in a major metropolitan newspaper. ….….Some forms of communication made possible by the giving and spending of money involve speech alone, some involve conduct primarily, and some involve a combination of the two. Yet this Court has never suggested that the dependence of a communication on the expenditure of money operates itself to introduce a non speech element or to reduce the exacting scrutiny required by the First Amendment.

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain-Feingold)