Cite as: 609 U. S. ____ (2026) 11 Opinion of the Court the speech of some elements of our society in order to enhance the relative voice of others is wholly foreign to the First Amendment.” Buckley, 424 U. S., at 48–49. In short, Congress’s original justification for the limits on political-party coordinated expenditures is entirely inadequate under the First Amendment. Cf. Kennedy v. Bremerton School Dist., 597 U. S. 507, 543, n. 8 (2022) (“Government justifications for interfering with First Amendment rights” must not be “hypothesized or invented post hoc in response to litigation” (quotation marks and alterations omitted)). Second, some might suggest that the Government possesses an interest in preventing a political party (as distinct from donors) from exercising undue influence on its candidates. But amicus and intervenors do not try to justify the political-party coordinated-expenditure limits on that basis. For good reason. Such a theory does not “make any sense” given the thoroughly intertwined relationship of parties and their candidates. 117 F. 4th 389, 402 (CA6 2024) (en banc) (Thapar, J., concurring). As JUSTICE THOMAS has succinctly explained, any influence a political party exerts over its candidates and officials “is not corruption”—it is “successful advocacy of ideas in the political marketplace and representative government in a party system.” Colorado I, 518 U. S., at 646 (opinion concurring in judgment and dissenting in part). Third, in 2001 in Colorado II, the Court justified the political-party coordinated-expenditure limits in part on a new donor-centric theory—namely, that the limits curb a donor’s “undue influence on an officeholder’s judgment, and the appearance of such influence.” 533 U. S., at 441; see also McCutcheon, 572 U. S., at 240 (Breyer, J., dissenting) (noting that Colorado II upheld the limits as a means of preventing “undue influence by wealthy donors” (quotation marks omitted)).