444
REPUBLICAN FEDERAL CAMPAIGN COMM. Opinion of the Court
tions and upheld their limitation, the argument went, the Party Expenditure Provision should stand as applied to all party election spending. See Brief for Respondent in Colorado I, O. T. 1995, No. 95-489, at 28-30; see also Colorado I, supra, at 619-623. Colorado I held otherwise, however, the principal opinion's view being that some party expenditures could be seen as "independent" for constitutional purposes. 518 U. S., at 614. The principal opinion found no reason to see these expenditures as more likely to serve or be seen as instruments of corruption than independent expenditures by anyone else. So there was no justification for subjecting party election spending across the board to the kinds of limits previously invalidated when applied to individuals and nonparty groups. The principal opinion observed that "[t]he independent expression of a political party's views is 'core' First Amendment activity no less than is the independent expression of individuals, candidates, or other political committees." Id., at 616. Since the FEC did not advance any other convincing reason for refusing to draw the independent-coordinated line accepted since Buckley, see National Conservative Political Action Comm., 470 U. S., at 497-498; Buckley, supra, at 46-47, that was the end of the case so far as it concerned independent spending. Colorado I, supra, at 617-623.
But that still left the question whether the First Amendment allows coordinated election expenditures by parties to be treated functionally as contributions, the way coordinated expenditures by other entities are treated. Colorado I found no justification for placing parties at a disadvantage when spending independently; but was there a case for leaving them entirely free to coordinate unlimited spending with candidates when others could not? The principal opinion in Colorado I noted that coordinated expenditures "share some of the constitutionally relevant features of independent expenditures." 518 U. S., at 624. But it also observed that "many [party coordinated expenditures] are . . . virtually in-
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