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86 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1221 (2015)
The Support Structure for Campaign Finance Litigation in the Roberts Court: A Research Agenda

handle is hein.journals/ucollr86 and id is 1273 raw text is: 








        THE SUPPORT STRUCTURE FOR
                  CAMPAIGN FINANCE
   LITIGATION IN THE ROBERTS COURT:
                A RESEARCH AGENDA
                        ANN SOUTHWORTH*

     Two recent Supreme Court decisions, Citizens United v.
Federal Election Commission1 and McCutcheon v. Federal
Election    Commission,2     have    sparked     enormous     public
controversy over the Roberts Court's stance toward the
regulation of money in politics.3 Supporters of the decisions
laud them for striking down dangerous restrictions on freedom
of speech,4 while critics assert that they have struck a terrible
blow against democratic values and electoral integrity.5 These


    *  Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. I
am grateful to participants in UC Irvine Law School's Summer Workshop Series
for advice at the outset of the project described in this essay. Thanks also to Aaron
Benmark, Alexander Danielyan, Yashina Burns, and Thomas Eisweirth for their
research assistance.
    1. 558 U.S. 310 (2010) (striking down a prohibition on the use of corporate or
union treasury funds to pay for electioneering communications or express
advocacy not coordinated with a campaign).
   2. 134 S. Ct. 1434 (2014) (finding unconstitutional federal aggregate limits
on contributions to candidates, political parties, and political action committees).
   3. President George W. Bush nominated John Roberts in 2005, initially to
succeed retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. When Chief Justice
William Rehnquist died before Roberts's confirmation hearings, President Bush
nominated Roberts to become the new Chief Justice.
   4. See, e.g., FLOYD ABRAMS, FRIEND OF THE COURT: ON THE FRONT LINES
WITH THE FIRST AMENDMENT 303-47 (2013) (defending the ruling in Citizens
United); Bradley A. Smith, Free Speech at Last: McCutcheon Decision Just Right,
NAT'L REV. ONLINE (Apr. 2, 2014), http://www.nationalreview.com/article/374894/
free-speech-last-mccutcheon-decision-just-right-bradley-smith, archived at http://
perma.cc/GP6E-AMXV   (describing McCutcheon as another step  toward
protecting political speech).
   5. See, e.g., Erwin Chemerinsky, Future of Campaign Finance Laws,
ORANGE COUNTY REG. (Apr. 8, 2014), http://www.ocregister.com/articles/court-
608924-political-campaign.html, archived at http://perma.cc/E5HA-FQZP (Those
who spend huge sums, after McCutcheon, in contributions to political parties will
be rightly perceived as having undue influence over the government that they
helped to elect.); Richard L. Hasen, Worse Than Watergate: The New Campaign
Finance Order Puts the Corruption of the 1970s to Shame, SLATE (July 19, 2012),
http://www.slate.comlarticles/news-and politics/jurisprudence/2012/07/campaign
finance_aftercitizensunited is-worsethanwatergate_.html, archived at http://
perma.cc/9DZZ-H3UK (How does the brave new world of campaign financing

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