Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014) 23 Opinion of ROBERTS, C. J. cepting the validity of Buckley’s circumvention theory, it is hard to see how a candidate today could receive a “massive amount[ ] of money” that could be traced back to a particular contributor uninhibited by the aggregate limits. Ibid. The Government offers a series of scenarios in support of that possibility. But each is sufficiently implausible that the Government has not carried its burden of demonstrating that the aggregate limits further its anticircumvention interest. The primary example of circumvention, in one form or another, envisions an individual donor who contributes the maximum amount under the base limits to a particular candidate, say, Representative Smith. Then the donor also channels “massive amounts of money” to Smith through a series of contributions to PACs that have stated their intention to support Smith. See, e.g., Brief for Appellee 35–37; Tr. of Oral Arg. 4, 6. Various earmarking and antiproliferation rules disarm this example. Importantly, the donor may not contribute to the most obvious PACs: those that support only Smith. See 11 CFR §110.1(h)(1); see also §102.14(a). Nor may the donor contribute to the slightly less obvious PACs that he knows will route “a substantial portion” of his contribution to Smith. §110.1(h)(2). The donor must instead turn to other PACs that are likely to give to Smith. When he does so, however, he discovers that his contribution will be significantly diluted by all the contributions from others to the same PACs. After all, the donor cannot give more than $5,000 to a PAC and so cannot dominate the PAC’s total receipts, as he could when Buckley was decided. 2 U. S. C. §441a(a)(1)(C). He cannot retain control over his contribution, 11 CFR §110.1(h)(3), direct his money “in any way” to Smith, 2 U. S. C. §441a(a)(8), or even imply that he would like his money to be recontributed to Smith, 11 CFR §110.6(b)(1). His salience as a Smith supporter has been