Cite as: 533 U. S. 431 (2001)
Thomas, J., dissenting
2
Even if the Government had presented evidence that the Party Expenditure Provision affects corruption, the statute still would be unconstitutional, because there are better tailored alternatives for addressing the corruption. In addition to bribery laws and disclosure laws, see Shrink Missouri, supra, at 428 (Thomas, J., dissenting), the Government has two options that would not entail the restriction of political parties' First Amendment rights.
First, the Government could enforce the earmarking rule of 2 U. S. C. § 441a(a)(8), under which contributions that "are in any way earmarked or otherwise directed through an intermediary or conduit to [a] candidate" are treated as contributions to the candidate. Vigilant enforcement of this provision is a precise response to the Court's circumvention concerns. If a donor contributes $2,000 to a candidate (the maximum donation in an election cycle), he cannot direct the political party to funnel another dime to the candidate without confronting the Federal Election Campaign Act's civil and criminal penalties, see 2 U. S. C. § 437g(a)(6)(C) (civil); § 437g(d) (criminal).
According to the Court, reliance on this earmarking provision "ignores the practical difficulty of identifying and directly combating circumvention" and "would reach only the most clumsy attempts to pass contributions through to candidates." Ante, at 462. The Court, however, does not cite any evidence to support this assertion. Nor does it articulate what failed steps the Government already has taken. Nor does it explain why the burden that the Government allegedly would have to bear in uncovering circumvention justifies the infringement of political parties' First Amendment rights. In previous cases, we have not been so willing to overlook such failures. See, e. g., Bartnicki, 532 U. S., at 530-531 ("[T]here is no empirical evidence to support the assumption that the prohibition against disclosures reduces the number of illegal interceptions").
481
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