every expenditure “‘relative to a clearly identified
candidate.’” Id., at 39 (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 608(e)(1) (1970
ed., Supp. IV)). To avoid vagueness concerns we construed
that phrase to apply only to “communications that in express
terms advocate the election or defeat of a clearly identified
candidate for federal office.” 424 U.S., at 42-44. We
concluded, however, that as so narrowed, the provision would
not provide effective protection against the dangers of quid
pro quo arrangements, because persons and groups could
eschew expenditures that expressly advocated the election
or defeat of a clearly identified candidate while remaining
“free to spend as much as they want to promote the candidate
and his views.” Id., at 45. We also rejected the argument that
the expenditure limits were necessary to prevent attempts to
circumvent the Act’s contribution limits, because FECA
already treated expenditures controlled by or coordinated
with the candidate as contributions, and we were not
persuaded that independent expenditures posed the same risk
of real or apparent corruption as coordinated expenditures.
Id., at 46-47. We therefore held that Congress’ interest in
preventing real or apparent corruption was inadequate to
justify the heavy burdens on the freedoms of expression and
association that the expenditure limits imposed. We upheld
all of the disclosure and reporting requirements in the Act that
were challenged on appeal to this Court after finding that
they vindicated three important interests:
providing the
electorate with relevant information about the candidates and
their supporters; deterring actual corruption and discouraging
the use of money for improper purposes; and facilitating
enforcement of the prohibitions in the Act. Id., at 66-68. In
order to avoid an overbreadth problem, however, we placed
the same narrowing construction on the term “expenditure”
in the disclosure context that we had adopted in the context
of the expenditure limitations. Thus, we construed the
reporting requirement for persons making expenditures of
more than $100 in a year “to reach only funds used for
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