Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 601.0

440  CITIZENS  UNITED  v.  FEDERAL  ELECTION  COMM’N 

Opinion of Stevens, J. 

of  millions  of  dollars  of  their  general  funds  to  pay  for  these 
ads.”  Id., at 127.  Congress passed § 203 to address this cir­
cumvention,  prohibiting  corporations  and  unions  from  using 
general  treasury  funds  for  electioneering  communications 
that “refe[r] to a clearly identiﬁed candidate,” whether or not 
those communications use the magic words.  2 U. S. C. 
§ 434(f)(3)(A)(i)(I). 

When we asked in McConnell “whether a compelling gov­
ernmental  interest  justiﬁe[d]”  § 203,  we  found  the  question 
“easily answered”: “We have repeatedly sustained legislation 
aimed at ‘the corrosive and distorting effects of immense ag­
gregations  of  wealth  that  are  accumulated  with  the  help  of 
the  corporate  form  and  that  have  little  or  no  correlation  to 
the  public’s  support  for  the  corporation’s  political  ideas.’ ” 
540  U. S.,  at  205  (quoting  Austin,  494  U. S.,  at  660).  These 
precedents  “represent  respect  for  the  legislative  judgment 
that the special characteristics of the corporate structure re­
quire particularly careful regulation.”  540 U. S., at 205 (in­
ternal  quotation  marks  omitted).  “Moreover,  recent  cases 
have  recognized  that  certain  restrictions  on  corporate  elec­
toral involvement permissibly hedge against ‘ “circumvention 
of  [valid]  contribution  limits.” ’ ”  Ibid.  (quoting  Beaumont, 
539  U. S., at  155, in  turn  quoting FEC  v.  Colorado  Republi­
can Federal  Campaign Comm., 533  U. S. 431, 456, and  n. 18 
(2001)  (Colorado  II);  alteration  in  original).  BCRA,  we 
found, is faithful to the compelling governmental interests in 
“ ‘preserving  the  integrity  of  the  electoral  process,  prevent­
ing corruption, . . . sustaining the active, alert responsibility 
of the individual citizen in a democracy for the wise conduct 
of  the  government,’ ”  and  maintaining  “ ‘the  individual  citi­
zen’s  conﬁdence  in  government.’ ”  540  U. S.,  at  206–207, 
n.  88  (quoting  Bellotti,  435  U. S.,  at  788–789;  some  internal 
quotation marks and brackets omitted).  What made the an­
swer even easier than it might have been otherwise was the 
option  to  form  PACs,  which  give  corporations,  at  the  least,