Opinion ID: 761818
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Constitutional Challenge to the Fund Act

Text: 14 The Reform Party contends that the Fund Act is unconstitutional both on its face and as applied. The Fund Act funds presidential campaigns according to the percentage of the popular vote the candidate's party received in the prior election. Parties that received over 25% of the vote are considered major parties and receive a full subsidy. Parties that received between 5% and 25% of the vote are considered minor parties and receive a lesser subsidy, proportionate to the number of votes they received in comparison to the major parties. Parties receiving less than 5% of the vote receive nothing. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 9002(6)-(7), 9004. On the basis of the Reform Party's showing in the 1992 presidential election, it received $29 million in federal funds for the 1996 campaign. The Democratic and Republican Parties each received the full $62 million subsidy. 15 The money comes with strings attached. In order to receive funds, parties must agree to limit their total spending to the amount of the subsidy, and candidates must agree to expend no more than $50,000 of their personal funds. See 26 U.S.C. §§ 9003-04. Other fundraising restrictions apply regardless of whether a party chooses to receive monies under the Fund Act. Most importantly for this appeal, FECA limits an individual's contribution to a campaign to $1,000. See 2 U.S.C. § 441a(a)(1)(A). 16 The Reform Party's facial challenges to the Fund Act are squarely foreclosed by the Supreme Court's holding in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976). In Buckley, political candidates and organizations challenged the constitutionality of the Fund Act on several grounds; the Court rejected them all and upheld the Act. The Court disagreed with the plaintiffs' contention that the Act violated the First Amendment, holding that the law is a congressional effort, not to abridge, restrict, or censor speech, but rather to use public money to facilitate and enlarge public discussion and participation in the electoral process. Id. at 92-93, 96 S.Ct. 612. The plaintiffs also argued that the Fund Act violated equal protection by unconstitutionally discriminating against minor parties. The Court, however, held that the public financing system does not prevent any candidate from getting on the ballot or any voter from casting a vote for the candidate of his choice; the inability, if any, of minor-party candidates to wage effective campaigns will derive not from lack of public funding but from their inability to raise private contributions. Id. at 94-95, 96 S.Ct. 612. The Reform Party's facial challenges to the Fund Act are based on the identical First Amendment and equal protection arguments that the Supreme Court rejected in Buckley. We uphold the district court's dismissal of these claims. 17 The Reform Party also contends that the Fund Act, as applied, can now be shown to discriminate unlawfully. The Reform Party relies upon the Supreme Court's reservation in Buckley of possible future consideration of an as applied challenge. The Court said: [I]n rejecting appellants' [facial] arguments, we of course do not rule out the possibility of concluding in some future case, upon an appropriate factual demonstration, that the public financing system invidiously discriminates against nonmajor parties. Id. at 97 n. 131, 96 S.Ct. 612. 18 The term invidious discrimination generally refers to treating a class differently in order to harm or repress it. Thus in J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel. T.B., 511 U.S. 127, 114 S.Ct. 1419, 128 L.Ed.2d 89 (1994), the Supreme Court described as invidious discrimination against female juror candidates that perpetuated outdated sexual stereotypes. Id. at 130-31, 114 S.Ct. 1419. Likewise, in Georgia v. McCollum, 505 U.S. 42, 56, 112 S.Ct. 2348, 120 L.Ed.2d 33 (1992) (citing Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., 500 U.S. 614, 629, 111 S.Ct. 2077, 114 L.Ed.2d 660 (1991)), the Court described discrimination against jurors of a particular race as invidious. See also Gardner v. California, 393 U.S. 367, 370-71, 89 S.Ct. 580, 21 L.Ed.2d 601 (1969) (denial of court transcript to indigent prisoner constitutes invidious discrimination). 19 The Court used invidious in Buckley in the same sense, i.e., to describe discrimination that tends to harm or repress minority parties. The Court explained that the plaintiffs in Buckley had made no showing that the $1,000 contribution limit would have a harmful effect on the initiation and scope of minor-party and independent candidacies. 424 U.S. at 34, 96 S.Ct. 612. Nor had they shown that the limit would reduce the strength of minority parties to a point below that attained without any public financing. Id. at 99, 96 S.Ct. 612. We conclude that in footnote 131, the Buckley Court was reserving the possibility that in the future, plaintiffs might be able to demonstrate that the fundraising constraints actually harmed or injured the voting strength of minority parties or their ability to field candidates. 20 The Reform Party has not claimed that the funding system has harmed it in these ways. Instead it contends that the $1,000 contribution limit, as applied, has made it impossible for it to make up the difference between its public funding and the public funding to major parties. It argues that because the $1,000 limit has prevented it from receiving and spending as much money as the major parties, the $1,000 limit as applied to contributions to the Reform Party must be unconstitutional. This is not the kind of claim that the Supreme Court reserved for future consideration as invidious discrimination. The Supreme Court knew full well when it decided Buckley that minority parties had never had as much money as major parties and would not under the Fund Act. It said: 21 Third parties have been completely incapable of matching the major parties' ability to raise money and win elections. Congress was, of course, aware of this fact of American life, and thus was justified in providing both major parties full funding and all other parties only a percentage of the major-party entitlement. 22 Id. at 98, 96 S.Ct. 612. 23 The Court in Buckley was concerned with preserving Congress' objective of preventing large contributors from exerting too much influence on elective office holders. See id. at 96, 96 S.Ct. 612 ([E]liminating the improper influence of large private contributions furthers a significant governmental interest.). The Court expressly recognized that the exclusion of minor parties from the Act's contribution limitations would undermine congressional objectives because it overlooks the fact that minor-party candidates may win elective office. Id. at 35, 96 S.Ct. 612. We therefore conclude that the Reform Party has not stated a claim that the Act has resulted in invidious discrimination as applied to its campaigns. The effects about which the Reform Party now complains were understood and taken into account by the Supreme Court when it rejected the challenges presented in Buckley.