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Syllabus
intended to influence state or local elections; for mixed-purpose activities such as get-out-the-vote (GOTV) drives and generic party advertising; and for legislative advocacy advertisements, even if they mentioned a federal candidate's name, so long as the ads did not expressly advocate the candidate's election or defeat. With regard to the second development, parties and candidates circumvented FECA by using "issue ads" that were specifically intended to affect election results, but did not contain "magic words," such as "Vote Against Jane Doe," which would have subjected the ads to FECA's restrictions. Those developments were detailed in a 1998 Senate Committee Report summarizing an investigation into the 1996 federal elections, which concluded that the soft-money loophole had led to a meltdown of the campaign finance system; and discussed potential reforms, including a soft-money ban and restrictions on sham issue advocacy by nonparty groups.
Congress enacted many of the committee's proposals in BCRA: Title I regulates the use of soft money by political parties, officeholders, and candidates; Title II primarily prohibits corporations and unions from using general treasury funds for communications that are intended to, or have the effect of, influencing federal election outcomes; and Titles III, IV, and V set out other requirements. Eleven actions challenging BCRA's constitutionality were filed. A three-judge District Court held some parts of BCRA unconstitutional and upheld others. The parties challenging the law are referred to here as plaintiffs, and those who intervened in support of the law are intervenor-defendants.
Held: The judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part.
251 F. Supp. 2d 176, 251 F. Supp. 2d 948, affirmed in part and reversed in part.
Justice Stevens and Justice O'Connor delivered the Court's opinion with respect to BCRA Titles I and II, concluding that the statute's two principal, complementary features—Congress' effort to plug the soft-money loophole and its regulation of electioneering communications—must be upheld in the main. Pp. 133-224. 1. New FECA § 323 survives plaintiffs' facial First Amendment challenge. Pp. 133-189. (a) In evaluating § 323, the Court applies the less rigorous standard of review applicable to campaign contribution limits under Buckley and its progeny. Such limits are subject only to "closely drawn" scrutiny, see 424 U. S., at 25, rather than to strict scrutiny, because, unlike restrictions on campaign expenditures, contribution limits "entai[l] only a marginal restriction upon the contributor's ability to engage in free communication," e. g., id., at 20-21. Moreover, contribution limits are grounded in the important governmental interests in preventing "both
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