632
Opinion of Thomas, J.
election campaign for the Office of United States Senator from the State of Colorado imposed by 2 U. S. C. § 441a(d) are unconstitutional, both facially and as applied." App. 68. Though Justice Breyer faults the Party for not "focus[ing] specifically upon coordinated expenditures," ante, at 623, the term "expenditures" certainly includes both coordinated as well as independent expenditures.1 See 2 U. S. C. § 431(9)(A) ("The term 'expenditure' includes . . . any purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit, or gift of money or anything of value, made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office" (emphasis added)). Moreover, at the time the Party filed its counterclaim, all party expenditures were treated by law as coordinated, see Federal Election Comm'n v. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Comm., 454 U. S. 27, 28-29, n. 1 (1981), so a reference to expenditures by a party was tantamount to a reference to coordinated expenditures.
Given the liberal nature of the rules governing civil pleading, see Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 8, the Party's straightforward allegation of the unconstitutionality of § 441a(d)(3)'s expenditure limits clearly suffices to raise the claim that neither independent nor coordinated expenditures may be regulated consistently with the First Amendment. Indeed, that is precisely how the Court of Appeals appears to have read the counterclaim. The court expressly said that it was "analyzing the constitutionality of limits on coordinated expenditures by political committees," 59 F. 3d 1015, 1024 (CA10 1995), under § 441a(d)(3).
For the same reasons, the fact that the Party's summary judgment affidavits did not "specifically allege," ante, at 623, that the Party intended to make coordinated expenditures is also immaterial. The affidavits made clear that, but for
1 Justice Breyer acknowledges as much when he asserts earlier in his opinion that "the unmodified term 'expenditure' " reflects a congressional intent "to limit all party expenditures." Ante, at 621 (emphasis in original).
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