Supreme Court Strikes Down Individual Campaign Contribution Limits

In a 5-4 vote the Supreme Court struck down individual campaign contribution limits on the grounds that such limits violate the 1st Amendment.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his opinion, "This Court has identified only one legitimate governmental interest for restricting campaign finances: preventing corruption or the appearance of corruption. We have consistently rejected attempts to suppress campaign speech based on other legislative objectives. No matter how desirable it may seem, it is not an acceptable governmental objective to ‘level the playing field,’ or to ‘level electoral opportunities,’ or to ‘equalize the financial resources of candidates…’ The First Amendment prohibits such legislative attempts to ‘fine-tune’ the electoral process, no matter how well intentioned."

See more at Politico or Scotus Blog.