Supreme Court Removes Limits on Corporate, Union Spending in Campaigns

The Supreme Court overturned two of its own decisions and a 63-year-old law limiting corporate contributions to political campaigns in a 5-4 ruling Thursday, the Associated Press reports. The ruling allows companies and labor unions to spend as freely as they like on election campaigns, and threatens separate prohibitions of those activities currently imposed by 24 states.

"The censorship we now confront is vast in its reach," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the dissenting opinion, saying, "The court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions around the nation."

The law leaves in place rules that keep corporate donors from contributing directly to politicians, but struck down key parts of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that barred union- and corporate-sponsored issue ads within 30 days of an election.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), an opponent of campaign-finance restrictions, praised the ruling, according to the New York Times. In a statement, he called it "an important step in the direction of restoring the First Amendment rights of these groups by ruling that the Constitution protects their right to express themselves about political candidates and issues up until Election Day."

The case stems from a documentary, produced last year by the conservative Citizens United, that was an attack on then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The filmmakers wanted to promote it during the 2008 primary season, but a federal court blocked its airing on cable television, as well as ads for it.