Name: Supreme Court decision on election finance limits could impact midterms
Uploaded: 2025-12-09T17:32:33.117Z
Duration: 2 min 15 s
Description: The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a challenge over campaign spending ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson has more details.

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a challenge over campaign spending ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson has more details.

Washington

The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing a case that challenges existing limits on the amount political party committees can spend to support candidates. The case, initiated by former Senate candidate J.D. Vance, argues that these caps violate First Amendment rights. 

Arguments in favor of maintaining the limits focus on preventing quid pro quo corruption or its appearance. Recent court discussions and opinions suggest the justices may be inclined to overturn these spending limits, which could affect coordination between parties and candidates in upcoming elections.

Supreme Court decision on election finance limits could impact midterms

justices on the U.S. Supreme Court weighing a case that could change long-standing limits on how much party committees can spend to get a candidate elected. The case before the high court today, originally filed by then-Senate candidate J.D. Vance and then aimed at lifting the cap, claiming limits were a violation of the First Amendment. Live to CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson. So Jessica, if Vance tries to run for president, this could really impact the race. Fascinating. So what are the arguments for not lifting the cap? So the arguments for keeping this cap in place is actually quite straightforward. The idea is that we can only limit money in politics if it serves either to prevent corruption, which has been defined narrowly by the recent Supreme Court, to be quid pro quo corruption. Literally, this for that. Not this kind of bigger, amorphous, undue influence or preferential access. So one, does it prevent corruption or two, does it prevent the appearance of this narrow definition of corruption? So what we're hearing in the arguments is whether or not these limits are needed enough because again, they would prevent either corruption, the appearance of corruption, or circumventing other limits that do those two things. We also know you're watching, as you were yesterday as well, those arguments about presidential power, specifically whether the president can fire somebody at an independent agency. I know it's just reading tea leaves right now, but are you getting a sense which direction the justices are leaning at this hour? So for yesterday's arguments, I think that they're pretty comfortable saying that you cannot put limits on a president when it comes to firing the head of one of these multi-member agencies, that presidents have to be able to fire those heads of agencies at will, not for cause. When it comes to what we're hearing today, the campaign finance case, I think if you look at the court's recent opinions, if you listen to their questioning, that they are going to ultimately overturn these limits on political parties and candidates being able to coordinate on expenditures. All right, Jessica Levinson watching it all and keeping us updated. Thank you so much. Good to see you.

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