Snapshot · The Ben Shapiro Show
SCOTUS ruled 6-3 in the campaign finance case that limits on political party coordinated expenditures with candidates abridge First Amendment speech rights.
Where this was said
At 1:21:10 · chapter starts 1:21:05
The campaign finance ruling comes under Shapiro's analysis as a correct if bewildering result from a policy landscape he considers entirely wrongheaded. Kavanaugh's 6-3 majority holds that FECA's coordinated expenditure limits abridge political parties' free speech. The law had previously tried to prevent large donors from circumventing direct contribution limits by funneling money through parties and earmarking it for candidates. The court says this is already illegal (earmarking is prohibited), so the broader coordination ban is unnecessary and unconstitutional. Shapiro endorses the ruling but goes further: he thinks all campaign finance law is ridiculous, that spending money in an election is core First Amendment-protected political speech, and that the supposed link between limiting money and limiting corruption is empirically false. He delivers a memorable rhetorical flourish: how much money would it cost to buy Bernie Sanders's endorsement of capitalism? Justice Thomas, he notes, had been in dissent on the controlling precedent (Colorado II, a 5-4 decision 25 years ago) and is now vindicated.
SCOTUS struck down FECA's limits on coordinated expenditures between political parties and their candidates, ruling it abridges First Amendment speech. The Chinese wall between parties and candidates was always absurd — parties coordinating with candidates is normal politics, not corruption.
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