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14 

MCCUTCHEON v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMM’N 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

limits  on  direct  contributions  to  individuals,  political
parties,  and  political  action  committees.    Ante,  at  22–29. 
Cf.  Buckley,  424  U. S.,  at  38  (aggregate  limits  “prevent
evasion”  of  base  contribution  limits).    Other  “campaign
finance  laws,”  combined  with  “experience”  and  “common
sense,” foreclose the various circumvention scenarios that 
the  Government  hypothesizes.  Ante,  at  28.  Accordingly,
the  plurality  concludes,  the  aggregate  limits  provide  no 
added benefit. 

The  plurality  is  wrong.  Here,  as  in  Buckley,  in  the 
absence  of  limits  on  aggregate  political  contributions,
donors can and likely will find ways to  channel millions of 
dollars  to  parties  and  to  individual  candidates,  producing
precisely  the  kind  of  “corruption”  or  “appearance  of  cor­
ruption”  that  previously  led  the  Court  to  hold  aggregate 
limits  constitutional.  Those  opportunities  for  circumven­
tion will also produce the type of corruption that concerns 
the plurality today.  The methods for using today’s opinion
to  evade  the  law’s  individual  contribution  limits  are  com­
plex, but they are well known, or will become well known, 
to party fundraisers.  I shall describe three. 

A 
Example  One:  Gifts  for  the  Benefit  of  the  Party.  Cam­
paign finance law permits each individual to give $64,800
over  two  years  to  a  national  party  committee.  2  U. S. C. 
§441a(a)(1)(B);  78  Fed.  Reg.  8532  (2013).    The  two  major 
political  parties  each  have  three  national  committees. 
Ante, at 4, n. 1.  Federal law also entitles an individual to 
give  $20,000  to  a  state  party  committee  over  two  years.
§441a(a)(1)(D).  Each  major  political  party  has  50  such 
committees.  Those  individual  limits  mean  that,  in  the 
absence of any aggregate limit, an individual could legally 
give  to  the  Republican  Party  or  to  the  Democratic  Party
about $1.2 million over two years.  See Appendix B, Table 
1,  infra,  at  39.    To  make  it  easier  for  contributors  to  give