Task: songer_majvotes

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the number of judges who voted in favor of the disposition favored by the majority. Judges who concurred in the outcome but wrote a separate concurring opinion are counted as part of the majority. For most cases this variable takes the value "2" or "3." However, for cases decided en banc the value may be as high as 15. Note: in the typical case, a list of the judges who heard the case is printed immediately before the opinion. If there is no indication that any of the judges dissented and no indication that one or more of the judges did not participate in the final decision, then all of the judges listed as participating in the decision are assumed to have cast votes with the majority. The number of majority votes recorded includes district judges or other judges sitting by designation who participated on the appeals court panel. If there is an indication that a judge heard argument in the case but did not participate in the final opinion (e.g., the judge died before the decision was reached), that judge is not counted in the number of majority votes.

Opinion PER CURIAM.
Opinion concurring in part and concurring in the result filed by Circuit Judge HARRY T. EDWARDS.
OUTLINE OF OPINION
Page
I. Introduction_________________________ 1094
II. History of the Case-------------------- 1095
III. Standing---------------------------- 1097
IV. Analysis ____________________________ 1099
A. Is the asserted imbalance between corporations and labor unions under the 1976 FECA amendments unconstitutional?___________________________1099
1. Background of the 1976 amendments ________________________1100
2. The alleged imbalance___________1103
3. The standard of review__________1105
4. The governmental interest.......1106
5. Means scrutiny: to what extent are corporations and labor unions similarly situated for the purpose at hand?______________ 1107
B. Does the statute impair career employees’ First Amendment right of political abstention by permitting the corporate PAC solicitation as detailed in the record?_____________________U09
1. Is solicitation of career employees inherently coercive?----------------1110
2. The considered judgment of Congress and the deference due to it___1112
C. Does the use of general corporate assets to establish and support a corporate PAC violate the First Amendment rights of dissenting shareholders?___________1115
V. Conclusion __________________________ms
I. INTRODUCTION
Before this en banc court are three questions concerning the constitutionality of two provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act (“FECA” or the “Act”) that regulate the solicitation practices of corporations and labor unions. Plaintiffs — a national labor organization and six individuals — argue that Congress has acted without sufficient regard for their political speech rights and the political speech rights of others in face of the proliferation of corporate political action committees (“PACs”) and their concomitant increased influence in federal elections. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that (1) Congress in the 1976 FECA amendments has created an unconstitutional imbalance between corporations and labor unions, in favor of the former, by allowing corporate PACs to solicit their executive and administrative (career) employees; (2) such corporate solicitation of executive and administrative employees, which occurs under inherently coercive circumstances, violates the First Amendment right of career employees to abstain from political expression; and (3) the provision of the Act that authorizes the financing of operating and administrative costs of a corporate PAC from general corporate assets violates the First Amendment rights of dissenting shareholders.
On June 3, 1981, the district court certified three questions matching these allegations pursuant to section 315(a) of the Act, 2 U.S.C. § 437h(a), the extraordinary judicial review provision of the Act, which provides: “[t]he district court immediately shall certify all questions of constitutionality of this Act to the United States Court of Appeals for the circuit involved, which shall hear the matter sitting en banc.” Finding none of plaintiffs’ arguments legally persuasive, we rule against them on each of the certified questions, and hold that the congressional product before us does not transgress constitutional limitations.
II. HISTORY OF THE CASE
On October 9, 1979, plaintiffs filed an administrative complaint with the Federal Election Commission (“FEC” or “Commission”), pursuant to 2 U.S.C. § 437g(a)(l), alleging that the solicitation practices of eleven selected corporations, in obtaining funds for their political action committees, contravened the prohibitions in section 441b(b). Alternatively, plaintiffs argued that if the Commission construed the relevant provisions of the Act to permit the corporate conduct challenged in the complaint, then those provisions of FECA violate the First and Fifth Amendment rights of the plaintiffs. Acting on a recommendation from the Commission’s General Counsel that there was no “reason to believe” the Act had been violated, the Commission, on December 13, 1979, unanimously voted to dismiss the complaint without further investigation and without an additional statement of reasons.
On February 4, 1980, plaintiffs filed a four-count complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief in the district court, pursuant to section 437g(a)(9)(A), seeking review of the Commission’s dismissal of their complaint. The first count alleged that “corporate PAC solicitations of unprotected career employees are yielding donations which are not free and voluntary, and constitute corporate political contributions because they result from the employment relationship.” Plaintiffs maintained that because these solicitations violated the Act, the Commission failed to discharge its statutory duty to investigate; thus, the Commission’s dismissal was contrary to law.
The second, third and fourth counts all alleged constitutional violations. Plaintiffs made clear in their complaint that they sought relief on their constitutional claims only if they were denied relief on the statutory count. Plaintiffs sought certification of the constitutional issues to this court pursuant to section 437h(a).
On cross-motions for summary judgment on the statutory claim, the district court upheld the Commission’s dismissal of plaintiffs’ administrative complaint. The Commission had previously filed a motion to dismiss the constitutional counts for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and for the further reason that plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. The district court denied the motion to dismiss and announced it would certify the three constitutional questions for this court’s en banc determination. The court found plaintiffs’ constitutional claims “neither frivolous nor so insubstantial as to warrant dismissal for failure to state a claim.” As to standing, the court concluded that each of the plaintiffs had made a threshold showing of injury in fact sufficient to satisfy Article III. The court further ruled that, although no corporate executive or administrative employee was party to the litigation, the plaintiffs possessed standing to assert vicariously the First Amendment rights of such employees. On January 12, 1981, plaintiffs noticed their appeal from the district court’s order upholding the Commission’s dismissal, D.C.Cir. Docket No. 81-1044.
Section 437h(a) requires a district court to certify immediately all questions of the constitutionality of the Act. However, as this court recognized in Buckley v. Valeo, 519 F.2d 817 (D.C.Cir.1976) (en banc), it is undesirable to decide a constitutional issue abstracted from its factual context. Therefore, on January 8, 1981, the district court entered a consent order providing for discovery of facts concerning the solicitation practices of four of the eleven corporations named in plaintiffs’ administrative complaint. On April 27, 1981, the parties signed an agreement stipulating two hundred ten findings of fact. The district court, on June 3, 1981, certified the three constitutional questions and submitted as the record the findings of fact agreed to by the parties. This court gave the certified constitutional case a regular docket number, No. 81-1664.
The Commission renewed in this court its motion to dismiss for lack of standing. This court sitting en banc consolidated the statutory appeal in No. 81-1044 with the certification of constitutional questions in No. 81-1664, deferred decision on the motion to dismiss until after argument, and expedited the two cases as contemplated by the Act.
On October 26, 1981, this court issued a judgment in No. 81-1044 affirming the district court’s disposition of the statutory claim, thereby putting squarely in issue plaintiffs’ three constitutional challenges. 672 F.2d 894.
III. STANDING
The Commission contends initially that none of the plaintiffs possesses the “voter standing” section 437h(a) requires; accordingly, the plaintiffs are not eligible to invoke the expedited procedure. Second, the Commission argues that the plaintiffs have failed to meet the Article III “case or controversy” requirement. We reject both arguments and therefore deny the Commission’s motion to dismiss at the threshold.
The text of section 437h states that these categories of plaintiffs may invoke the certification procedure: “[t]he Commission, the national committee of any political party, or any individual eligible to vote in any election for the office of President.” 2 U.S.C. § 437h(a). In Bread Political Action Committee v. FEC, - U.S. -, 102 S.Ct. 1235, 71 L.Ed.2d 432 (1982), the Supreme Court held that only parties who fit one of these three descriptions have recourse to the expedited, certification procedure. Accordingly, IAMA lacks the requisite statutory standing and must be dismissed as party plaintiff. The Commission maintains further that the “voter standing” Congress granted in section 437h(a) is confined to plaintiffs who put in issue their First Amendment rights qua voters. The individual plaintiffs, under the Commission’s analysis, lack standing to utilize section 437h; although each is an eligible voter, no individual plaintiff has raised an issue as to his or her right to vote. Rather, plaintiffs raise issues as union members, as corporate shareholders, and on behalf of corporate employees, not as voters.
Only one decision has embraced this pinched construction of section 437h(a). In Martin Tractor Co. v. FEC, 460 F.Supp. 1017, 1019 (D.D.C.1978), aff’d on other grounds, 627 F.2d 375 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 954, 101 S.Ct. 360, 66 L.Ed.2d 218 (1980), the court stated:
[T]he individual plaintiffs do not sue in their individual capacities to protect their individual rights to vote or even to make contributions. They sue to vindicate a claimed right of their corporate employer to influence its employees... to make voluntary political contributions. While the question is not free from doubt, the Court has concluded that this kind of derivative right was not the constitutional right of “an individual eligible to vote” which Congress considered “appropriate” for vindication in a special declaratory judgment action under § 437h, particularly where, under the statutory scheme there is an alternative process for resolution of the substantive issue in the context of a particular transaction....
In the case before us, plaintiffs did proceed under the “alternative process for resolution” of their challenges; they pursued a section 437g enforcement action. The district court removed the constitutional issues from the section 437g action and certified them to this court pursuant to section 437h. This is the proper mode of procedure for questions of the Act’s constitutionality arising in section 437g proceedings. California Medical Ass’n v. FEC, 453 U.S. 182, 101 S.Ct. 2712, 2717-19, 69 L.Ed.2d 567 (1981).
Martin Tractor apart, we find no support for the Commission’s position that section 437h(a) qualifies voters to raise constitutional issues only in relation to their rights as voters. Neither the language of the statute (any eligible voter, all constitutional questions) nor its legislative history suggests an interpretation so constricted. We note further that the Commission’s view is difficult to reconcile with California Medical Ass’n v. FEC, 101 S.Ct. 2712 (1981), in which the Supreme Court adjudicated a section 437h challenge to a provision of the Act regulating trade association activity. In short, we reject the FEC’s severely limited voter standing delineation, disapprove Martin Tractor to the extent it adopted the Commission’s view, and hold that the plaintiffs who are “individuals eligible to vote” in federal elections have statutory standing to invoke the section 437h certification procedure. See California Medical Ass'n v. FEC, 101 S.Ct. at 2717 n.6 (1981); Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 12, 96 S.Ct. 612, 631, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976).
We are also satisfied that the individual plaintiffs have Article III standing to raise the constitutional claims. The union member plaintiffs allege that they suffer a relative diminution in their political voices — their influence in federal elections — as a direct result of the discriminatory imbalance Congress is alleged to have ordered in the 1976 FECA amendments; they further assert that a ruling declaring the amendments unconstitutionally discriminatory would likely redress their injury. Similarly, the stockholder plaintiffs allege that the use of “their” corporate assets to establish and support a PAC impinges upon their political freedoms; a ruling invalidating the authorizing statute would eliminate this asserted harm. These arguments are sufficient to establish the individual plaintiffs’ standing under Article III to assert their First and Fifth Amendment rights. Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Environmental Study Group, Inc., 438 U.S. 59, 72, 98 S.Ct. 2620, 2630, 57 L.Ed.2d 595 (1978); Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 498-99, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2204-05, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). However, no executive or administrative employees appear among the named plaintiffs. Those plaintiffs seek to assert vicariously alleged First Amendment rights of career employees to abstain from political expression.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly cited the prudential limitation on standing that a plaintiff generally may assert only his own legal interests, and may not raise those of third parties. Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 100, 99 S.Ct. 1601, 1608, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979); Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 499, 95 S.Ct. at 2205 (1975). This prudential rule against the assertion of third-party claims is designed “to limit access to the federal courts to those litigants best suited to assert a particular claim,” Gladstone, Realtors, 441 U.S. at 100, 99 S.Ct. at 1608. Because the rule is not of constitutional dimension, the Court has recognized exceptions to it in a number of cases. See, e.g., Carey v. Population Services, Int'l, 431 U.S. 678, 97 S.Ct. 2010, 52 L.Ed.2d 675 (1977); Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 97 S.Ct. 451, 50 L.Ed.2d 397 (1976); Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 49 L.Ed.2d 826 (1976); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972); Barrows v. Jackson, 346 U.S. 249, 73 S.Ct. 1031, 97 L.Ed. 1586 (1953). Moreover, it is clear that Congress may, by legislation, permit one who satisfies Article III requisites in his own right to assert vicariously the rights of third parties. Gladstone, Realtors, 441 U.S. at 100, 99 S.Ct. at 1608 (1979); Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 501, 95 S.Ct. at 2206 (1976). We believe Congress did not wish to truncate the presentations of parties entitled to invoke the section 437h expedited, certification procedure. Therefore, we entertain the individual plaintiffs’ arguments with respect to the alleged First Amendment rights of career employees. See California Medical Ass’n, 101 S.Ct. at 2717 n.6 (1981) (“[Tjhis court has held [the grant of standing under section 437h] to be limited only by the constraints of Art. III of the Constitution.... ”); Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. at 12, 96 S.Ct. at 631 (1976) (“It is clear that Congress, in enacting [section 437h], intended to provide judicial review to the extent permitted by Art. III.”). But cf. Bread Political Action Committee v. FEC, -U.S.-,-, 102 S.Ct. 1235, 1239, 71 L.Ed.2d 432 (1982) (In the context of considering who may invoke the expedited procedures of section 437h, the Court stated: “We do not assume the maximum jurisdiction permitted by the Constitution, absent a clearer mandate from Congress than here expressed.”). The plaintiffs allege that the infringement of executive and administrative employees’ right of political abstention leads to greater contributions to corporate PACs and, hence, to greater corporate PAC expenditures. This allegedly causes a relative diminution of the plaintiffs’ political voices, which is one of the asserted injuries they seek to redress in this litigation.
Accordingly, we hold that the individual plaintiffs here are qualified to pursue all three constitutional challenges, including the claim that career employees are unconstitutionally exposed, by reason of the 1976 FECA amendments, to inherently coercive solicitations.
IV. ANALYSIS
A. Is the asserted imbalance between corporations and labor unions under the 1976 FECA amendments unconstitutional?
The union plaintiffs claim that Congress, in the 1976 FECA amendments, restricted corporate and labor union PAC activity in an unequal and discriminatory manner, upsetting an alleged long-standing balance between corporations and labor unions, in violation of First and Fifth Amendment strictures.
1. Background of the 1976 amendments.
Congressional regulation of corporate political activity began with the Tillman Act of 1907, wherein Congress prohibited corporations from making money contributions in connection with any federal election. Congress has strengthened this prohibition several times since in a continuing effort to free the political system of inordinate and improper corporate influence. It was not until the War Labor Disputes Act of 1943, however, that Congress brought labor unions within the reach of the prohibition.
In 1971, Congress, in a major undertaking to reform the federal election laws, enacted the Federal Election Campaign Act. Congress dealt with corporate and labor union political activity in section 205 of the Act, a section originally offered as an amendment by Representative Hansen. Representative Hansen stated that the purpose of the amendment “is to codify the court decisions interpreting [18 U.S.C. § 610], and to spell out in more detail what a labor union or corporation can or cannot do in connection with a federal election.” The amendment “draws a distinction between activities directed at the general public, which [the courts have] prohibited, and communications by a corporation to its stockholders and their families, and by a labor organization to its members and their families, on any subject, which the courts have held is permitted.” As to the latter, to ensure that contributions are voluntary, the amendment prohibited the use of funds obtained by force, threat of force, job reprisal or discrimination, dues or fees, a safeguard now found at 2 U.S.C. § 441b(b)(3)(A). Representative Hansen concluded that the amended “Section 610 strikes a balance between organizational rights [of corporations and labor unions] and the rights of those who wish to retain their shareholding interest or membership status but who disagree with the majority’s political views.”
In the debate over the Hansen amendment, Congress focused on the respective interests of organization and individual, not on any balancing of corporate and labor influence. Congress appeared satisfied that existing law conformed to the legislature’s wish to treat corporations and labor unions evenhandedly so that no alteration by FECA was required. Thus, as amended section 610 read when the Act became law in 1972, corporations were permitted to solicit contributions through their political action committees from their shareholders and their families, and labor unions were allowed to solicit contributions through their PACs from their members and their families.
In the 1976 amendments, Congress added a corporation’s “executive or administrative personnel and their families” to those whom a corporate PAC may solicit. This alteration was a direct response to SUNPAC, an Advisory Opinion the Commission issued in 1975. In SUNPAC, the Commission ruled, inter alia, that a corporate PAC could, consistent with the Act, solicit all of the corporation’s employees as well as its shareholders. The debate in both Houses confirms that the single purpose of the alteration was to reject the sweeping SUNPAC interpretation and restore in large measure the balance thought to exist between corporations and labor unions prior to the Commission’s SUNPAC opinion.
The House Bill, H.R. 12406, would have allowed a corporate PAC to solicit only its “executive officers” in addition to the corporation’s shareholders. Representative Thompson stated that the House amendment “specifically corrects the FEC’s erroneous interpretation” in SUNPAC. According to Thompson, SUNPAC “drastically modified the equitable balance which had been the national policy established during the 92d Congress.” The House Bill would “reestablish[ ] the congressionally determined balance between interests of the business community and its stockholders, and the interests of the labor community and its membership.”
The House Report explicitly states that “[t]he Sun Oil [SUNPAC] opinion destroys the intent of the Congress to establish rules that apply equally to labor unions and corporations.” The House Bill proposed “three limited clarifications of the law,” all of them intended by the Committee to ensure even-handed treatment of corporations and labor unions. In allowing a corporate PAC to communicate with and solicit contributions from its “executive officers,” the Committee noted that it viewed “management personnel,” like stockholders, “to be among the beneficial owners of a corporation.” The main purpose of the bill was stated as follows in the House Report:
H.R. 12406 continues the rule that unions may only solicit those they represent— their members — and reaffirms the intent of the 1971 Congress that corporations must also confine their activities to a roughly comparable group — namely, stockholders and executive officers
The bill also provided that any method of solicitation or communication which the law permitted corporations must also be permitted labor organizations.
The Senate Bill, S. 3065, employed the phrase “executive or administrative personnel” instead of “executive officers,” but in all other respects relevant here it tracked the House version. The Senate’s intent to overturn the broad SUNPAC ruling is clear from the treatment accorded two amendments to the bill offered by Senator Pack-wood on the Senate floor. Senator Pack-wood first introduced an amendment which “in essence, lets everybody solicit everybody in the corporation.... ” Specifically, his first amendment would have allowed a union PAC to solicit non-member employees and shareholders and, symmetrically, would have permitted a corporate PAC to solicit all of the corporation’s employees including union members. Senator Packwood acknowledged the amendment “pretty much, puts the situation back where the Federal Election Commission had left it with their rulings in the creation of what was known as the SUNPAC decision.” But he believed it treated labor unions and corporations “equitably.” The Senate, without debate, rejected this amendment, 40-45.
Senator Packwood introduced next “the middle ground amendment,” a proposal which would have extended corporate and union solicitation to middle level employees. Conceding that strong labor opposition to the SUNPAC ruling justified some restrictions on corporate solicitation of employees, Packwood nevertheless pointed out that under the Senate Bill “nonsupervisory, nonu-nionized employees, who are half of the work force of the major corporations in this country, cannot be solicited by the union and cannot be solicited by the employer.” These middle level employees, Packwood urged, have a stake in what both corporation and labor union do that affects them, therefore both union PACs and corporate PACs should be allowed to solicit them. Other Senators expressed concern over the potential for coercion, actual and perceived, in permitting solicitation of these non-supervisory, non-union employees. Although Packwood attempted to assure his colleagues that coercion was illegal under present law and would remain so under his amendment, the Senate rejected this amendment, too, 33-47. Senator Dole, speaking of the provision concerning PACs just before the vote on the entire bill, stated, “Although the compromise reached with respect to solicitation of funds from employees may not be totally consistent with the SUNPAC decision, it probably also represents a fair settlement of the issue.”
The substitute bill as reported out of conference employed the Senate language “executive or administrative personnel.” The Conference Report defined “executive or administrative personnel” as “employee[s] who [are] paid on a salary, rather than hourly, basis and who ha[ve] policymaking, managerial, professional, or supervisory responsibilities.” The Report explained further:
The term “executive or administrative personnel” is intended to include the individuals who run the corporation’s business, such as officers, other executives, and plant, division, and section managers, as well as individuals following the recognized professions, such as lawyers and engineers, who have not chosen to separate themselves from management by choosing a bargaining representative; but is not intended to include professionals who are members of a labor organization, or foremen who have direct supervision over hourly employees, or other lower level supervisors such as “strawboss-es”.
Concerning the balance Congress intended to restore in these amendments, the Conference Report contains only a passing reference to “the general rule inherent in the plan of the entire section — that unions insofar as they are employers,[] stand in the same shoes as corporations. Congress was not unaware, however, that the balance struck in 1976 was different from the one that existed prior to the SUNPAC ruling. In presenting the Conference Bill to the House, Representative Hays stated:
The individuals... whom a corporation may... solicit[] for contributions to a political fund was broadened to include professional employees who are not represented by a bargaining agent and supervisory employees other than foremen who directly supervise rank-and-file employees.
Representative Brademas concluded that Congress has restored the ante-SUNPAC balance “in a manner that is fair and evenhanded.... [I]f the word ‘fairness’ implies a balancing of rights, this bill represents an equitable balance between the rights of corporations and labor unions. It is the product of deliberation, negotiation and compromise.”
In sum, our review of the relevant legislative history convinces us of two things: (1) Congress intended to overrule the SUN-PAC decision in substantial part and re-establish a balance similar, but not identical, to the one Congress codified in 1971; (2) there was a general consensus that the amendments achieved this purpose and did so equitably.
2. The alleged imbalance.
Plaintiffs, in light of the legislative history just recounted, do not claim that Congress in 1976 intended to tip the balance in favor of corporations. Rather, they accuse Congress of lacking the prescience to comprehend the effect of unleashing corporate PACs to solicit career employees: an “explosive” growth both in the number of corporate PACs and in their influence in federal elections, disproportionate to that of union PACs.
Plaintiffs cite the following figures and invite comparison. In 1975, 139 corporate PACs raised $5.8 million; 226 union PACs raised $18.5 million. By 1980, however, there were 1204 corporate PACs with a combined campaign chest of $34 million. The number of labor PACs increased in the same period only incrementally to 297; they raised $26 million. Plaintiffs estimate that 90% of corporate PAC funds are derived from executive and administrative employees. Plaintiffs’ figures do not inform us how many career employees were open to solicitation pre-1976 as shareholders. Nor, taking into account that labor union PACs just a few years ago were more prevalent, wealthier, and more powerful than corporate PACs, do plaintiffs entertain the possibility that the relative strength of corporate and labor PACs may swing pendulum-like in step with the political fortunes of the day. Plaintiffs demonstrate a connection in time (and argue a causal connection) between the SUNPAC ruling, the 1976 amendments, and the proliferation of corporate PACs. It is the statute, they argue — specifically the provision authorizing corporate solicitation of career employees — that “allows and invites a large and growing imbalance between corporate and union PAC funds.”
Although plaintiffs recite a host of figures to dramatize this disparity, the imbalance of which they complain is not purely one of dollars and cents. Instead, the imbalance Congress is said to have created in 1976 is institutional, a matter of capacity, and thus outside the power of labor unions to correct. According to plaintiffs, there simply are many more major corporations (and many more career employees to be solicited) than there are major labor unions (and union employees ). Because most major corporations have not yet set up a political action committee, plaintiffs’ argument continues, the chasm between corporate and labor PAC funds promises to widen even more.
Plaintiffs do not object, however, to the proscription on labor PAC solicitation of non-member union employees (or non-member corporate employees). Even if Congress drew the 1976 amendments in a facially equal manner (corporate and labor PACs may solicit their respective career employees; or corporate and labor PACs alike may solicit all corporate employees, regardless of union membership, and all shareholders), plaintiffs would still press their discrimination claim. In sum, the union plaintiffs challenge here congressional action that frees corporate PACs to amass funds that labor union PACs allegedly could not attract even if they were permitted to try.
3. The standard of review.
The union plaintiffs argue that the 1976 amendments, which authorize labor PACs to solicit their members but which authorize corporate PACs to solicit their career employees in addition to their shareholders, violate the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. They argue conjunctively that this disparate treatment violates their First Amendment rights. Urging linked consideration of these two constitutional safeguards, plaintiffs rely on decisions focused on the “intersection” of equal protection and First Amendment guarantees, most notably, Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976), and Police Department v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 92 S.Ct. 2286, 33 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972). They maintain that the 1976 amendments must be scrutinized strictly and assert that the Commission has not adequately justified the amendments’ disparate impact on corporate and labor PACs.
While heightened scrutiny often attends a legislative classification alleged to impinge on First Amendment interests, we reject plaintiffs’ argument that the most stringent review standard should apply in this case. Decisions in point may lack perfect consistency and crystal clarity, but they do reveal that the nature and quality of the legislative action at issue determine the intensity of judicial review of intertwined equal protection, First Amendment claims. We note in that light that the particular congressional action plaintiffs assail does not encroach directly or, on its face, place limits on any individual’s speech or participation in the electoral process. In this respect, neither Mosley, involving an ordinance allowing one group, but not others, to picket, nor Buckley v. Valeo, involving limitations on campaign contributions and expenditures, nears plaintiffs’ mark. Moreover, we underscore again that plaintiffs do not seek for union PACs the permission Congress granted corporate PACs to solicit career employees. Rather, plaintiffs want to tighten or reinstate a governmental limitation on political activity, i.e., they would preclude corporate PACs from soliciting career employees, in order to maintain a balance between electoral messages spread by corporations and those spread by unions.
Mosley itself enunciated review standards that were not the most exacting, and Buckley v. Valeo drew distinctions bearing on the rigorousness of review based on the character of the several legislative proscriptions the Court scrutinized. See, e.g., 424 U.S. at 95-96, 96 S.Ct. at 671. We are therefore confident that the matter before us does not call for a review standard more demanding than this elevated, but not strictest, test: the challenged legislative action must bear a substantial relation to an important governmental interest.
4. The governmental interest
Plaintiffs phrase their objection to the 1976 amendments in terms of the ends Congress may have sought to achieve by permitting corporate PACs to communicate with and solicit executive and administrative employees. But their objection is more appropriately addressed to the means Congress chose to serve an indisputably important governmental interest: impartial FECA treatment of corporations and labor unions. It confounds means and ends scrutiny to demand, as plaintiffs do, that Congress explicate a substantial government interest in adding career employees to the pool of permissible corporate solicitees. As developed earlier the 1976 amendments at issue were designed to restore a balance to FECA’s treatment of corporations and labor unions, a balance the Commission in its SUNPAC ruling had upset. It is true that the balance Congress struck in 1976 differs from the one arrived at in 1971. But the goal of Congress has remained the same. Thus, whether the 1976 amendments survive constitutional review turns on the degree of precision with which Congress has achieved its unquestionably proper purpose: does the legislative scheme of section 441b(b)(2), as amended in 1976, bear a substantial relation to the important governmental interest in applying the federal election laws even-handedly to labor unions and corporations?
5. Means scrutiny: to what extent are corporations and labor unions similarly situated for the purpose at hand?
Congress apparently did not consider the difference in capacity between corporate and labor PACs when it framed the 1976 amendments. But, as we observed earlier, no disparity in favor of corporations existed in 1976. Although plaintiffs seem to charge Congress with a duty to prevent such a disparity from developing, their more basic complaint poses an obvious question: if Congress in the 1976 amendments intended to restore the balance upset by the Commission in SUNPAC, why did it not simply reaffirm the 1971 scheme, under which unions were permitted to solicit their members, and corporations their shareholders? Why did Congress add career employees to those whom a corporate PAC may solicit? Two related considerations lead us to reject plaintiffs’ argument that this discrepancy renders the statute unconstitutional.
First, Congress found, and plaintiffs do not contest, that executive and administrative employees share with stockholders a stake in the corporation’s well-being. Recognizing a corporation’s “right” to communicate with and solicit those who share an identity of interest with it, Congress simply extended the exercise of this right to communications with and solicitation of career employees. Congress thus tendered a sensible response to SUNPAC: it cut back the Commission’s decision by excluding from corporate solicitation the bulk of the workforce, but it recognized that upper echelon personnel may identify with the corporation at least as much as shareholders do.
Second, in attempting to treat corporations and labor unions equally, Congress believed it was necessary in 1976 — as it was in 1971 — to take into account their structural differences. Technically, shareholders own the corporation. While union members do not “own” their union in the same technical sense, there is more than a kernel of truth in describing members as “owners.” The union membership resembles a corporation’s stockholders in that each group is the source of legitimacy and power for the organization’s management and leadership. Thus, it follows that Congress would consider sound the analogy: union members are to their union as shareholders are to their corporation. In theory, directors, officers, and upper management run the corporation pursuant to the wishes of the shareholders. But corporate democracy is in many respects more theoretical than real. It is, if anything, more likely that a corporation’s career employees will identify with the corporate direction, purpose, and welfare than will a shareholder who does not own a controlling interest. Congress took note of this likelihood in 1976 and thought it reasonable to allow a corporate PAC to solicit these employees. If there is an appropriate analogy, it might be either: career employees are to their corporation as union leadership is to its union, or union career employees are to their union. To achieve symmetry in 1976, Congress might have authorized union PACs to solicit their leadership or their career employees. However, this would have scant practical effect' since it appears that the vast majority of union career employees and union leaders are also union members. As has been noted, the House Report indicates Congress believed the 1976 classification was drawn fairly:
H.R. 12406 continues the rule that unions may only solicit those they represent— their members — and reaffirms the intent of the 1971 Congress that corporations must also confine their activities to a roughly comparable group —namely, stockholders and executive officers.
Our conclusion that differences in organizational structure allow Congress to shape the election laws to reflect those differences is supported by two recent decisions involving equal protection challenges to FECA. In Bread Political Action Committee v. FEC, 635 F.2d 621 (7th Cir. 1980) (en banc), rev’d on other grounds,-U.S.-, 102 S.Ct. 1235, 71 L.Ed.2d 432 (1982), a trade association PAC argued that section 441b(b)(4)(D) deprived it of equal protection because under the statute, a trade PAC must obtain prior approval of a member corporation before soliciting that corporation’s permissible solicitees. In rejecting that claim, the court pointed out that
the somewhat dissimilar treatment of corporations, labor organizations, membership organizations and trade associations under Section 441b(b)(4) follows

Question: What is the number of judges who voted in favor of the disposition favored by the majority?
A. 0
B. 1
C. 2
D. 3
E. 4
F. 5
G. 6
H. 7
I. 8
J. 9
K. 10
L. 11
M. 12
N. 13
O. 14
P. 15
Q. Not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: H