Cite as: 572 U. S. ____ (2014) 27 Opinion of ROBERTS, C. J. CFR §102.17(c)(5). Under no circumstances may a contribution to a joint fundraising committee result in an allocation that exceeds the contribution limits applicable to its constituent parts; the committee is in fact required to return any excess funds to the contributor. See §102.17(c)(6)(i). The District Court assumed compliance with the specific allocation rules governing joint fundraising committees, but it expressly based its example on the premise that the donor would telegraph his desire to support one candidate and that “many separate entities would willingly serve as conduits for a single contributor’s interests.” 893 F. Supp. 2d, at 140. Regardless whether so many distinct entities would cooperate as a practical matter, the earmarking provision prohibits an individual from directing funds “through an intermediary or conduit” to a particular candidate. 2 U. S. C. §441a(8). Even the “implicit[ ]” agreement imagined by the District Court, 893 F. Supp. 2d, at 140, would trigger the earmarking provision. See 11 CFR §110.6(b)(1). So this circumvention scenario could not succeed without assuming that nearly 50 separate party committees would engage in a transparent violation of the earmarking rules (and that they would not be caught if they did). Moreover, the District Court failed to acknowledge that its $500,000 example cannot apply to most candidates. It crafted the example around a presidential candidate, for whom donations in the thousands of dollars may not seem remarkable—especially in comparison to the nearly $1.4 billion spent by the 2012 presidential candidates. The same example cannot, however, be extrapolated to most House and Senate candidates. Like contributions, coordinated expenditures are limited by statute, with different limits based on the State and the office. See 2 U. S. C. §441a(d)(3). The 2013 coordinated expenditure limit for most House races is $46,600, well below the $500,000 in

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents