Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014)
9
Opinion of ROBERTS, C. J.
because most large donors do not seek improper influence
over legislators’ actions. Although the Court accepted that
premise, it nevertheless rejected the overbreadth challenge for two reasons: First, it was too “difficult to isolate
suspect contributions” based on a contributor’s subjective
intent. Id., at 30. Second, “Congress was justified in
concluding that the interest in safeguarding against the
appearance of impropriety requires that the opportunity
for abuse inherent in the process of raising large monetary
contributions be eliminated.” Ibid.
Finally, in one paragraph of its 139-page opinion, the
Court turned to the $25,000 aggregate limit under FECA.
As a preliminary matter, it noted that the constitutionality of the aggregate limit “ha[d] not been separately
addressed at length by the parties.” Id., at 38. Then, in
three sentences, the Court disposed of any constitutional
objections to the aggregate limit that the challengers
might have had:
“The overall $25,000 ceiling does impose an ultimate
restriction upon the number of candidates and committees with which an individual may associate himself by means of financial support. But this quite
modest restraint upon protected political activity
serves to prevent evasion of the $1,000 contribution
limitation by a person who might otherwise contribute
massive amounts of money to a particular candidate
through the use of unearmarked contributions to political committees likely to contribute to that candidate, or huge contributions to the candidate’s political
party. The limited, additional restriction on associational freedom imposed by the overall ceiling is thus
no more than a corollary of the basic individual contribution limitation that we have found to be constitutionally valid.” Ibid.