Republicans ask the Supreme Court to gut one of the last limits on money in politics - Ian Millhiser @ Vox

[In It to Win It]

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There is a specter of inevitability hanging over much of the Supreme Court’s current term. It is unlikely that any legal argument could persuade the Court’s Republican majority to uphold bans on anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapy, for example, or to preserve the Voting Rights Act. These are issues where Republican judges have wildly divergent views from Democratic jurists. And, on a 6-3 Republican Court, that means that the GOP’s view wins.

That specter looms particularly large over National Republican Senatorial Committee (“NRSC”) v. FEC, which the Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday, December 9. In that case, the GOP asks the justices to repeal a complicated campaign finance scheme limiting the amount of money big donors can funnel to candidates. And, given this Court’s history in campaign finance cases, it is all but certain that Republicans will win this case.

Few issues split the two parties more cleanly than campaign finance regulation. Broadly speaking, the Democratic justices believe that too much money in politics is inherently corrupting, because, as Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in a 2014 dissent, “a few large donations” can “drown out the voices of the many.”

Under this view, big campaign donations breed a government that is responsive only to a small group of very wealthy donors. In Breyer’s words, “where enough money calls the tune, the general public will not be heard.”

The Supreme Court will hear National Republican Senatorial Committee (“NRSC”) v. FEC on Tuesday, December 9. In that case, the GOP asks the justices to repeal a complicated campaign finance scheme limiting the amount of money big donors can funnel to candidates.

— Vox (@vox.com) 2025-12-03T16:29:35.899Z