General Discussion

Earl H McCreary
10:23 AM
Wow 52k plus on line
Tom
10:23 AM
The next hour is going to be a real test of our internet connections. 😄
Amy Howe
Mod
10:24 AM
Justice Kavanaugh also has the next opinion
It is NRSC v. FEC, the campaign finance case.
The vote is 6-3. Kagan dissents, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson.
Nora Collins
Mod
10:24 AM
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p…
Link: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1260_g3cn.pdf
Amy Howe
Mod
10:24 AM
This was a challenge to a federal law that limits the amount of money that political parties can spend in coordination with a candidate for federal office. In 2001, in FEC v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee, the court upheld the limits by a vote of 5-4 – with Justice Clarence Thomas (the only member of that court now on the current court) writing for the dissent. When this case went to the court of appeals, it said, in essence, that the challengers had some good arguments, but that it was bound by the Supreme Court’s decision in the 2001 case. The Trump administration declined to defend the party-expenditure limits, so the justices appointed Roman Martinez, a former clerk to Chief Judge John Roberts and then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to do so.
The court holds that the law's "limits on political parties' coordinated expenditures violate the First Amendment."

Nora Collins
Mod
10:25 AM
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p…
Wrong link, sorry! https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-621_h315.pdf
Amy Howe
Mod
10:26 AM
The court also overruled its decision in the Colorado case.
Rory K. LittleMod replied Amy Howe
10:26 AM
The court also overruled its decision in the Colorado case.
Two overrulings in two days!
David LatMod replied Amy Howe
10:27 AM
This was a challenge to a federal law that limits the amount of money that political parties can spend in coordination… more
Roman Martinez is one of the best SCOTUS advocates under 50 (or really of any age, but especially under 50). Makes sense that he'd be appointed to serve as counsel in an important case.
Amy Howe
Mod
10:27 AM
Kavanaugh writes that its reasoning in that case "has been rejected by subsequent cases and is no longer good law in light of the court's more recent precedents. To the extent that Colorado II has retained any vitality, it is now overruled."
In her dissenting opinion, Kagan argues that the majority "jettisons a rule needed to protect our democracy's integrity."
David Lat
Mod
10:28 AM
I haven't given it a lot of thought, but I think I prefer honest overrulings as opposed to faux ones.
Amy Howe
Mod
10:29 AM
She adds later that "To count on disclosure to prevent corruption is as much as to give up on the goal itself. Which is, sad to say, what this Court does today."
sarah isgur
Mod
10:29 AM
Again, this doesn't change donor limits to candidates or parties but it does mean that parties will have a lot more carrots and sticks to determine their own candidates---a blow to DSA and tea party movements, for example. Also likely to undermine the effectiveness superPACs.