Valeo, and the Court was in a hurry. The nation would choose a president in the upcoming November 1976 elections. But landmark campaign-reform measures passed in 1971 and amended in 1974 raised a series of important constitutional questions. The law set limits on the amounts contributed to and spent by campaigns. It required full disclosure of political donations and provided for federal financing of presidential campaigns. It also created a new bureaucracy to police federal elections: the Federal Election Commission. For decades, Congress had relied on disclosure requirements, plus bribery laws, to deter campaign-finance abuses. But the abuses that marked the 1972 presidential election were too many and too corrupting for Congress to ignore. The law came under attack as critics said that challengers would have a harder time defeating incumbents and that third parties would find it more difficult to be competitive. But here in the Court, the law's constitutionality—not its virtues or vices as public policy—was the issue.
What do You think about First Among Equals (2008)?
