CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-FIRST AMENDMENT-SPEECH-POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate, 2022 U.S. LEXIS 2403 (S. Ct. May 16, 2022) (Roberts, C.J.)  Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court.  In order to jumpstart a fledgling campaign or finish strong in a tight race, candidates for federal office often loan money to their campaign committees. A provision of federal law regulates the repayment of such loans. Among other things, it bars campaigns from using more than $250,000 of funds raised after election day to repay a candidate’s personal loans. This limit on the use of post-election funds increases the risk that candidate loans over $250,000 will not be repaid in full, inhibiting candidates from making such loans in the first place. The question is whether this restriction violates the First Amendment rights of candidates and their campaigns to engage in political speech.  The government has not shown that § 304 furthers their permissible anti-corruption goal, rather than the impermissible objective of simply limiting the amount of money in politics.  We conclude that Cruz and the Committee have standing to challenge the threatened enforcement of § 304 of BCRA.  We also conclude that this provision burdens core political speech without proper justification.  The judgment of the district court is affirmed.