BUCKLEY v. VALEO
1
Per Curiam
the Court of Appeals said, "provisions for public funding
of Presidential campaigns . . . could operate to give an
unfair advantage to established parties, thus reducing, to
the nation's detriment,.., the 'potential fluidity of
American political life.'" 171 U. S. App. D. C., at 231,
519 F. 2d, at 880, quoting from Jenness v. Fortson, supra,
at 439.
1. General Election Campaign Financing
Appellants insist that Chapter 95 falls short of the constitutional requirement in that its provisions supply
larger, and equal, sums to candidates of major parties,
use prior vote levels as the sole criterion for pre-election
funding, limit new-party candidates to post-election
funds, and deny any funds to candidates of parties receiving less than 5% of the vote. These provisions, it is
argued, are fatal to the validity of the scheme, because
they work invidious discrimination against minor and
new parties in violation of the Fifth Amendment. We
disagree. 3'
As conceded by appellants, the Constitution does
not require Congress to treat all declared candidates
the same for public financing purposes. As we said in
Jenness v. Fortson, "there are obvious differences in kind
between the needs and potentials of a political party with
historically established broad support, on the one hand,
and a new or small political organization on the other....
Sometimes the grossest discrimination can lie in treating
131 The allegations of invidious discrimination are based on the
claim that Subtitle H is facially invalid; since the public financing
provisions have never been in operation, appellants are unable to
offer factual proof that the scheme is discriminatory in its effect.
In rejecting appellants' arguments, we of course do not rule out the
possibility of concluding in some future case, upon an appropriate
factual demonstration, that the public financing system invidiously
discriminates against nonmajor parties.
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