Opinion ID: 2817769
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Monetary Threshold

Text: In Buckley, the Supreme Court stated that deciding where to locate a monetary threshold “is necessarily a judgmental decision, best left . . . to congressional discretion” and determined that the thresholds presented were not “wholly without rationality.” 424 U.S. at 83 (discussing thresholds for direct contributor disclosure). Thus, even though election disclosure laws are analyzed under exacting scrutiny, we apply less searching review to monetary thresholds — asking whether they are “rationally related” to the State’s interest. Nat’l Org. for Marriage v. McKee, 649 F.3d 34, 60 (1st Cir. 2011) (citing Buckely and stating that “judicial deference [is granted] to plausible legislative judgments as to the appropriate location of a reporting threshold . . . unless they are wholly without rationality”) (quotation marks and internal citation omitted); Worley v. Fla. Sec’y of State, 717 F.3d 1238, 1251–52 (9th Cir. 2013) potential four year look-back and BCRA’s potential two year look-back period. 12 (same analysis of monetary thresholds in the political action committee context); Family PAC v. McKenna, 685 F.3d 800, 811 (4th Cir. 2012) (same). Under BCRA,6 groups that spend in excess of $10,000 annually must report individual contributors of $1,000 or more. 52 U.S.C. § 30104(f)(1), (2)(F). Under the Act, groups that spend more than $500 annually must report individual contributors of $100 or more. 15 Del. C. § 8031(a)(3). It is unsurprising that Delaware’s thresholds are lower than those for national elections. Delaware is a small state where direct mail makes up 80% of campaign expenditures. J.A. 135. “[F]or less than $500 a campaign can place enough pre-recorded ‘robo-calls’ to reach every household in a Delaware House district. If a hyper-targeted recipient list is used, as is common in campaigns, $150 would suffice.” J.A. 137. The expenditure thresholds are supported by the record and are rationally related to Delaware’s unique election landscape.