436
Syllabus
whose special meetings and receptions give donors the chance to get their points across to the candidates. The fact that incumbent candidates give more excess campaign funds to parties than parties spend on coordinated expenditures does not defuse concern over circumvention; if party contributions were not used as a funnel from donors to candidates, there would be no reason for the tallying system described by the witnesses. Finally, the Court rejects the Party's claim that, even if there is a circumvention threat, the First Amendment demands a response better tailored to that threat than a limitation on coordinated spending. First, the Party's suggestion that better crafted safeguards are already in place in § 441a(a)(8)—which provides that contributions that are earmarked or otherwise directed through an intermediary to a candidate are treated as contributions to the candidate—ignores the practical difficulty of identifying and directly combating circumvention when contributions go into a general party treasury and candidate-fundraisers are rewarded with something less obvious than dollar-for-dollar pass-throughs. Second, although the Party's call for replacing limits on parties' coordinated expenditures with limits on contributions to parties is based in part on reasoning in Buckley, supra, at 44, and Colorado I, supra, at 617, those cases ultimately turned on the understanding that the expenditures at issue were independent and therefore functionally true expenditures, whereas, here, just the opposite is true. Pp. 461-465.
213 F. 3d 1221, reversed.
Souter, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Stevens, O'Connor, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Scalia and Kennedy, JJ., joined, and in which Rehnquist, C. J., joined as to Part II, post, p. 465.
Acting Solicitor General Underwood argued the cause for petitioner. With her on the briefs were former Solicitor General Waxman, Malcolm L. Stewart, Lawrence M. Noble, Richard B. Bader, and David Kolker.
Jan Witold Baran argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Thomas W. Kirby and Carol A. Laham.*
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the State of Missouri et al. by Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Attorney General of Missouri, and James R. Layton, State Solicitor, joined by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Ken Salazar of Colorado, Earl I. Anzai
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