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REPUBLICAN FEDERAL CAMPAIGN COMM. Opinion of the Court
committees); California Medical Assn. v. Federal Election Comm'n, 453 U. S. 182, 193-199 (1981) (contributions by individuals and associations); Buckley, supra, at 23-36 (contributions by individuals, groups, and political committees).7
The First Amendment line between spending and donating is easy to draw when it falls between independent expenditures by individuals or political action committees (PACs) without any candidate's approval (or wink or nod), and contributions in the form of cash gifts to candidates. See, e. g., Shrink Missouri, supra, at 386-388; Buckley, supra, at 19- 23.8 But facts speak less clearly once the independence of
7 The contribution limits at issue in Buckley applied to "persons" ("person" again defined as "an individual, partnership, committee, association, corporation or any other organization or group of persons," id., at 23). Certain groups (referred to under current law as "multicandidate political committees") that registered with the FEC and met other qualifications, including making contributions to five or more candidates for federal office, were subject to a higher limit. Id., at 35.
The current contribution limits appear in 2 U. S. C. § 441a(a). They provide that "persons" (still broadly defined, see § 431(11)) may contribute no more than $1,000 to a candidate "with respect to any election for Federal office," $5,000 to any political committee in any year, and $20,000 to the national committees of a political party in any year. § 441a(a)(1). Individuals are limited to a yearly contribution total of $25,000. § 441a(a)(3). "[M]ulticandidate political committees" are limited to a $5,000 contribution to a candidate "with respect to any election," $5,000 to any political committee in any year, and $15,000 to the national committees of a political party in any year. § 441a(a)(2). Unlike the party expenditure limits, these contribution limits are not adjusted for inflation.
8 The Party does not challenge the constitutionality of limits on cash contributions from parties to candidates, Brief for Respondent 49, n. 31, which, on the FEC's reading of the Act, are imposed on parties by the generally applicable contribution limits of 2 U. S. C. § 441a(a), see n. 16, infra. And the Party, unlike Justice Thomas, post, at 465 (dissenting opinion), does not call for the overruling of Buckley. Nor does the FEC ask us to revisit Buckley's general approach to expenditure limits, although some have argued that such limits could be justified in light of post-Buckley developments in campaign finance, see, e. g., Blasi, Free Speech and the Widening Gyre of Fundraising, 94 Colum. L. Rev. 1281 (1994); cf. Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC, 528 U. S. 377, 409
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