National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Comm’n · ¶26

The First Amendment’s protection of free speech has its “fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office.” Federal Election Comm’n v. Ted Cruz for Senate, 596 U. S. 289, 302 (2022) (quotation marks omitted). With respect to campaign- related spending, the “central holding in Buckley v. Valeo is that spending money on one’s own speech must be permitted.” Colorado I, 518 U. S., at 627 (opinion of Kennedy, J.) (citation omitted). For that reason, this Court has determined that political parties—as well as candidates, private individuals, and outside groups—may make unlimited independent expenditures during political campaigns. See Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 39–59 (1976) (per curiam); Colorado I, 518 U. S., at 616 (opinion of Breyer, J.).

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