Cite as: 558 U. S. ____ (2010)
69
Opinion of STEVENS, J.
of 99.97% independent expenditures ($3 million) and
0.03% direct contributions ($1,000)—as a “contribution.”
See, e.g., id., at ___ (slip op., at 1) (“The basis for the
[recusal] motion was that the justice had received cam
paign contributions in an extraordinary amount from”
Blankenship); id., at ___ (slip op., at 3) (referencing
“Blankenship’s $3 million in contributions”); id., at ___
(slip op., at 14) (“Blankenship contributed some $3 million
to unseat the incumbent and replace him with Benjamin”);
id., at ___ (slip op., at 15) (“Blankenship’s campaign con
tributions . . . had a significant and disproportionate
influence on the electoral outcome”). The reason the Court
so thoroughly conflated expenditures and contributions,
one assumes, is that it realized that some expenditures
may be functionally equivalent to contributions in the way
they influence the outcome of a race, the way they are
interpreted by the candidates and the public, and the way
they taint the decisions that the officeholder thereafter
takes.
Caperton is illuminating in several additional respects.
It underscores the old insight that, on account of the ex
treme difficulty of proving corruption, “prophylactic meas
ures, reaching some [campaign spending] not corrupt in
purpose or effect, [may be] nonetheless required to guard
against corruption.” Buckley, 424 U. S., at 30; see also
Shrink Missouri, 528 U. S., at 392, n. 5. It underscores
that “certain restrictions on corporate electoral involve
ment” may likewise be needed to “hedge against circum
vention of valid contribution limits.” McConnell, 540
U. S., at 205 (internal quotation marks and brackets
omitted); see also Colorado II, 533 U. S., at 456 (“[A]ll
Members of the Court agree that circumvention is a valid
theory of corruption”). It underscores that for-profit cor
porations associated with electioneering communications
will often prefer to use nonprofit conduits with “mislead
ing names,” such as And For The Sake Of The Kids, “to