Media Coverage
Source: Reuters
Media Coverage
09.10.12
Following two U.S. Court of Appeals decisions in September, Pillsbury political law partner Frederick Lowell and senior associate Emily Barrett Erlingsson commented on the ramifications of those decisions and whether federal campaign finance issues will again be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court post its 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
According to Lowell and Erlingsson, Super PACs limit their political spending to independent expenditures: supporting candidates without contributing directly to or coordinating with them. That division -- between the political group and the candidates it supports -- permits Super PACs to receive contributions from corporations and unions that are prohibited from making direct contributions to candidates.
As a result of numerous federal circuit splits in cases involving disclosure requirements for political contributions, Lowell said it is likely that the Supreme Court will eventually take up the issue. But Lowell also said that he doesn't believe additional PAC regulations have served to squelch corporate political spending. "If you try to put a lid on the political teapot," he said, "the steam is just going to come out from somewhere else."