Supreme Court strikes down limits on political parties' campaign spending, in win for GOP

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down limits on the amount that political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for office, notching a win for Republicans who argued the restrictions violated the First Amendment. The 6-3 ruling , which was opposed by the court's liberal justices, overturns coordinated-expenditure limits that had been in place for decades and withstood a previous legal challenge 25 years earlier. In doing so, it further expands the role that money will play in American politics —a role that had already been enlarged by rulings lifting limits on independent campaign spending by parties and corporations . Democratic Party organizations had opposed the challenge brought by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, arguing there was no Constitutional reason for the Supreme Court to convert parties' "limited right into an unlimited one." But the court's majority concluded, "the political-party coordinated-expenditure limits at issue here are 'disproportionate' and are not 'necessary' and 'narrowly tailored'" to satisfy the government's interest in preventing the "circumvention of the base limits on contributions to candidates through earmarked contributions to parties." President Donald Trump took a victory lap after the ruling, writing on Truth Social , "The Supreme Court just took restrictions off political spending! …