Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. Federal Election Commission

Summary

The Court held that applying the Federal Election Campaign Act's party-expenditure limit to an independent expenditure by a political party violated the First Amendment because independent party expenditures receive the same protection as other independent political expenditures and do not present a sufficiently demonstrated corruption risk. The Court rejected treating all party expenditures as coordinated merely as a matter of law, determined that the record showed no actual coordination, and declined to resolve the constitutionality of limits on genuinely coordinated party expenditures or the facial challenge. Justice Kennedy, Justice Thomas, and Justice Stevens wrote separately; Kennedy and Thomas would have reached broader constitutional questions, while Stevens would have upheld the limit.