Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/13pdf/12-536_e1pf.pdf
Page Number: 37

Cite as:  572 U. S. ____ (2014) 

31 

Opinion of ROBERTS, C. J. 

marshaled to capture perfectly the counterfactual world in 
which aggregate limits do not exist.  But, as we have noted 
elsewhere,  we  can  nonetheless  ask  “whether  experience 
under the present law confirms a serious threat of abuse.” 
Federal  Election  Comm’n  v.  Colorado  Republican  Federal 
Campaign Comm., 533 U. S. 431, 457 (2001).  It does not. 
Experience  suggests  that  the  vast  majority  of  contri- 
butions  made  in  excess  of  the  aggregate  limits  are  likely 
to  be  retained  and  spent  by  their  recipients  rather  than
rerouted to candidates. 

In  the  2012  election  cycle,  federal  candidates,  political
parties, and PACs spent a total of $7 billion, according to
the  FEC.    In  particular,  each  national  political  party’s 
spending  ran  in  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars.    The 
National  Republican  Senatorial  Committee  (NRSC),  Na-
tional  Republican  Congressional  Committee 
(NRCC),
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and
Democratic  Congressional  Campaign  Committee  (DCCC),
however,  spent  less  than  $1  million  each  on  direct  candi-
date contributions and less than $10 million each on coor-
dinated  expenditures.  Brief  for  NRSC  et al.  as  Amici 
Curiae  23,  25  (NRSC  Brief).    Including  both  coordinated 
expenditures  and  direct  candidate  contributions,  the
NRSC  and  DSCC  spent  just  7%  of  their  total  funds  on
contributions  to  candidates  and  the  NRCC  and  DCCC 
spent just 3%.

Likewise,  as  explained  previously,  state  parties  rarely 
contribute  to  candidates  in  other  States.    In  the  2012 
election cycle, the Republican and Democratic state party
committees in all 50 States (and the District of Columbia) 
contributed  a  paltry  $17,750  to  House  and  Senate  candi-
dates  in  other  States.    The  state  party  committees  spent
over  half  a  billion  dollars  over  the  same  time  period,  of
which the $17,750 in contributions to other States’ candi-
dates constituted just 0.003%. 

As with national and state party committees, candidates