National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Comm’n · ¶122

Because coordinated expenditures are “as useful to the candidate as cash,” Congress has long recognized that, unless regulated, they will undermine contribution limits. Id., at 446 (majority opinion). Consider the matter first with respect to individual and non-party group donors (the latter meaning corporate and interest groups). There is no point to the $7,000 base limit if a deep-pocketed donor can spend hundreds of thousands more to pay for campaign expenses. So the campaign finance law treats coordinated expenditures by such donors as contributions—meaning, subject to the normal base limits. See 52 U. S. C. §30116(a)(7)(B). And this Court long ago upheld that rule, explaining that it “prevent[s] attempts to circumvent the Act through prearranged or coordinated expenditures amounting to disguised contributions.” Buckley, 424 U. S., at 47. (The majority today does not touch that…

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