LexBlog Network quotes Venable political law blog on Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision

Last week, in a 5-4 ruling on McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court struck down the aggregate limit an individual can donate to political candidates and parties in an election cycle. The Court’s decision struck down a $46,200 ceiling on contribution for federal candidates and a $70,800 aggregate limit to entities such as political parties or committees. On April 7, 2014, LexBlog Network quoted a recent Political Law Briefing post written by Venable partners Ron Jacobs and Larry Norton on the decision. The post discusses the ruling’s impact on donation caps at the state level. “The more immediate and potentially significant impact of the ruling will be on state laws that apply calendar year or election cycle limits on political contributions,” Jacobs and Norton wrote. “As we have previously written, at least 12 states have such limits, almost all of which are much lower than the overturned federal limit. In fact, Massachusetts wasted no time in announcing that based on the Supreme Court’s ruling, it will no longer enforce the state’s $12,500 limit on the total contributions an individual can make in a calendar year. We expect other states will follow suit.”