appearance of corruption, it upheld FECA’s disclosure requirements,
and it did nothing to disturb the Court’s prior findings that limits on
corporate and union contributions, as opposed to expenditures,
appropriately further that interest. See id. at 356–57; see also Cort v.
Ash, 422 U.S. 66 (1975); First Nat’l Bank of Boston v. Bellotti,
435 U.S. 765, 787–88 n.26 (1978) (finding limits on contributions
address problem of corruption of elected representatives through
creation of political debts) (dictum).
Section 30118 prohibits the following:
• Contributions (which include coordinated expenditures) by
corporations and labor organizations in connection with
any federal election, unless made to a Super PAC (a
political committee engaging only in independent
expenditures). 53
• Contributions and expenditures by a national bank or a
federally chartered corporation in connection with any
election – federal, state, or local. 54
• Consent to a prohibited contribution or expenditure by
any officer of a corporation, labor organization, or national
bank; and
• Knowing acceptance of a prohibited contribution by any
candidate, political committee, or other person .
53
The ban on corporate and union contributions to independent expenditure-only
political committees was invalidated by the D.C. Circuit in SpeechNow.org v. Fed. Election
Comm’n, 599 F.3d 686 (D.C. Cir. 2010).
This statute is one of two FECA prohibitions that extend to non-federal elections.
The other is 52 U.S.C. § 30121, which prohibits foreign nationals from making contributions
to non-federal as well as federal elections.
54
134
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