Campaign Finance Reform: Constitutional Issues Raised by Disclosure Requirements
RS20849 -- Campaign Finance Reform: Constitutional Issues Raised by Disclosure Requirements
Updated March 20, 2001

	Reporting of Contributions and Candidate/Party Expenditures

In its landmark decision, Buckley v. Valeo, (2) the Supreme Court upheld the reporting and disclosure requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)applicable to contributions and expenditures by candidates and political parties. For example, in Vote Choice,Inc. (21)
On the other hand, the current prevailing view of the courts is that disclosure requirements for non-candidate expenditures, which do not expressly advocate theelection or defeat of a clearly identified candidate, are unconstitutional. That is, according to most courts,expenditures for communications that merely relate topolitical issues, without meeting the "express advocacy" standard, are constitutionally protected issue advocacycommunications, which cannot be subject todisclosure requirements or any other regulation. Asnoted by the Court, "Congress has merely refused to pay for lobbying out of public moneys." Instead, such a requirement might be held to infringe on a First Amendmentright, ( i.e.
Current federal election law contains reporting and disclosure requirements related tocampaign financing. (1) TheSupreme Court has generally upheld such provisions, although imposing disclosure requirements on spending forcommunications that do not meet the strictstandard of "express advocacy" may be held unconstitutional.
Campaign finance reform legislation often contains provisions that would impose additional reporting anddisclosure requirements under the Federal ElectionCampaign Act (FECA). For example, S. 27 (McCain/Feingold), would require disclosure of disbursementsof expenditures over $10,000 for"electioneering communications," which are defined to include broadcast ads that "refer" to federal officecandidates, with identification of donors of $500 ormore. S. 22 (Hagel/Landrieu) would increase and expedite current disclosure requirements under FECA. H.R. 380 (Shays/Meehan)would lower the current FECA threshold for contribution reporting from $200 to $50 and impose reportingrequirements for soft money disbursements by personsother than political parties. This report will discuss some of the constitutional issues relating to these and other suchdisclosure requirements.