The U.S. Supreme Court rules that federal limits on how much political parties may spend in coordination with their federal candidates are unconstitutional. In a 6–3 decision in the case commonly reported as NRSC v. FEC, the Court invalidates longstanding restrictions in the Federal Election Campaign Act that capped coordinated expenditures by political parties with their candidates. The ruling is widely described as grounded in the First Amendment, with the majority concluding the limits on coordinated spending cannot stand.
The decision draws a noted split on the Court. Sources report that Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson are in dissent. Reporting also frames the ruling as politically significant because major party committees head toward the November midterm elections, and the change removes limits that had constrained party-candidate coordination spending.
Across outlets, the common outcome is that coordinated campaign spending caps for political parties are lifted, and parties are now able to spend more without the previously applicable federal ceiling when coordinating with their federal candidates.
