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The Supreme Court just handed the American people a rare victory for common sense. In a 6-3 decision, the Court struck down federal limits on coordinated expenditures between political parties and their candidates—a restriction that never made sense in the first place. Justice Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, didn’t mince words: the 2001 precedent upholding these limits is dead. And good riddance.
For decades, campaign finance law rested on a bizarre fiction—that a political party could somehow “corrupt” its own nominee. Think about that for a moment. The Republican Party, formed to elect Republican candidates. The Democratic Party, formed to elect Democratic candidates. Yet federal law treated their coordinated efforts as potential criminal activity, as if the very purpose of political parties was somehow suspect. Nobody who has ever worked a campaign, knocked on doors, or stuffed envelopes at a county headquarters believes this. Parties exist to elect candidates. That’s not corruption—that’s democracy.
The Court’s decision in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission restores a measure of sanity to our campaign finance system. Justice Kavanaugh wrote that the old precedent’s “reasoning has been rejected by subsequent cases and is no longer good law.” Translation: the Court finally admitted what everyone knew—that restricting how parties support their own candidates serves no legitimate anti-corruption purpose. It only serves to weaken political parties and empower outside groups with less accountability and less transparency.
There’s a deeper principle here that shouldn’t be lost in the technical details. The First Amendment protects political speech, and political parties are the primary vehicles through which Americans organize to participate in self-government. When the government restricts how parties can communicate with voters and support their candidates, it’s not fighting corruption—it’s rigging the game. It’s tilting the playing field toward independent expenditure groups that can raise unlimited money without the institutional constraints and voter accountability that parties face.
The Biden administration, to its discredit, initially defended these restrictions. But when President Trump returned to office, the Solicitor General changed course and conceded what should have been obvious: these limits are unconstitutional. That wasn’t a political stunt. It was an honest acknowledgment that the First Amendment means what it says. When the government stops defending an unconstitutional law, that’s not weakness—it’s respect for the Constitution.
Justice Thomas, the only remaining member of the Court from the 2001 decision, saw his dissent vindicated after twenty-five years. He argued then that “breaking the connection between parties and their candidates inhibits the promotion of the party’s message.” He was right. Today’s decision doesn’t open the floodgates to corruption. It simply allows political parties to do what they were created to do—elect their candidates and advance their principles. In an era of dark money and shadowy super PACs, strengthening parties as accountable institutions is something conservatives should celebrate.
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