8 NATIONAL REPUBLICAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMM’N Opinion of the Court to whom of political activities and communications. What policy positions should the party and candidate adopt and emphasize? When and where should the party and candidate run campaign ads? What is the best content for party ads? For candidate ads? For candidate and surrogate speeches? Which voters should the party and candidate target? How best to use social media? How can the party and candidate avoid duplication of effort? How can the party and candidate best get out the vote? The list goes on. In light of those day-to-day activities, parties and candidates have traditionally coordinated during campaigns. That coordination has formed “the essence of our Nation’s party system of government.” Colorado II, 533 U. S., at 477 (THOMAS, J., dissenting). For nearly 200 years after the ratification of the First Amendment, parties could spend freely to support their candidates during campaigns and could do so in coordination with the candidates. Notably, no one suggests “that these elections were not functional or that they were marred by corruption.” Id., at 473 (quotation marks and citation omitted). But the modern congressional limits on political-party coordinated expenditures restrict that coordination and the party’s speech. The limits impair the party’s traditional forms of communication such as advertisements; preclude parties from amplifying the voice of their adherents; impose additional monetary costs and burdens on political parties; and inflict a “stifling effect on the ability of the party to do what it exists to do.” Colorado I, 518 U. S., at 630 (opinion of Kennedy, J.); see also Colorado II, 533 U. S., at 469–471 (THOMAS, J., dissenting). B As a matter of text and history, therefore, the restriction on political-party coordinated expenditures would appear to violate the First Amendment. But the Court’s precedents—