	Background

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), P.L. The most significant portion of the Court's decision is the 119 page majority opinion coauthored by Justices Stevens and O'Connor, joined by Justices Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, in which the Court upheld two critical features of BCRA: the limits on raising and spending previously unregulated political party soft money, and the prohibition on corporations and labor unions using treasury funds—which is unregulated soft money—to finance electioneering communications. Instead, BCRA requires that such ads may only be paid for with corporate and labor union political action committee (PAC) funds, also known as hard money. Indeed, in 2007, the Court in FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (WRTL II) determined that BCRA's "electioneering communications" provision was unconstitutional as applied to ads that Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc., sought to run, thereby limiting the law's application. The Court upheld the constitutionality of this provision. Subsequently, in the 2007 decision FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (WRTL II), the Supreme Court held that Title II of BCRA was unconstitutional as applied to ads that Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc., sought to run. While not expressly overruling its 2003 ruling in McConnell v. FEC, the Court limited the law's application. Specifically, it ruled that advertisements that may reasonably be interpreted as something other than an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate are not the functional equivalent of express advocacy and, therefore, cannot be regulated. Prohibition on Campaign Contributions by Minors Age 17 and Under Invalidated

The Court invalidated BCRA's prohibition on individuals age 17 or younger making contributions to candidates and political parties.
McConnell v. FEC, a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision, upheld the constitutionality of key portions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) against facial challenges. (BCRA, which amended the Federal Election Campaign Act [FECA], codified at 2 U.S.C. § 431 et seq., is also known as the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law). A 5 to 4 majority of the Court upheld restrictions on the raising and spending of previously unregulated political party soft money, and a prohibition on corporations and labor unions using treasury funds to finance "electioneering communications," requiring that such ads may only be paid for with corporate and labor union political action committee (PAC) funds. The Court also invalidated a requirement that parties choose between making independent expenditures or coordinated expenditures on behalf of a candidate, and a prohibition on minors age 17 and under making campaign contributions. A 2007 Supreme Court decision, FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (WRTL II), while not expressly overruling McConnell, narrowed the application of BCRA. Finding that the BCRA "electioneering communications" provision was unconstitutional as applied to ads that Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc., sought to run, the Court in WRTL II held that advertisements that may reasonably be interpreted as something other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate cannot be regulated. For further discussion of WRTL II, see CRS Report RS22687, The Constitutionality of Regulating Political Advertisements: An Analysis of Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc., by [author name scrubbed].