The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear a major challenge to the way political campaigns are funded that could sharply reduce one of Democrats’ financial advantages in recent years.
Fifteen years ago, the Supreme Court dramatically remade the campaign finance landscape in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a landmark case in which the justices struck down legal limits on independent political spending by corporations and unions, allowing a flood of new money to enter politics.
The court has been chipping away at campaign finance restrictions ever since. The case the justices will consider on Tuesday involves one of the remaining limits: how much money political parties can spend in coordination with candidates.
......
In practical terms, a win for the Republicans could have an immediate impact on the midterm elections, shrinking one of the Democratic Party’s major financial advantages: lower costs for political candidates who directly buy broadcast advertising time.