Court Opinion

ID: 9431958
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:33:42.762331+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:31.229418
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
concurring.
In my opinion the distinction between individual expenditures and individual contributions that the Court identified in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 45-47 (1976), should have little, if any, weight in reviewing corporate participation in candidate elections. In that context, I believe the danger of either the fact, or the appearance, of quid pro quo relationships provides an adequate justification for state regulation of both' expenditures and contributions. Moreover, as we Recognized in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U. S. 765 (1978), there is a vast difference between lobbying and debating public issues on the one hand, and political campaigns for election to public office on the other.* Accordingly, I join the Court’s opinion and judgment.

“In addition to prohibiting corporate contributions and expenditures for the purpose of influencing the vote on a ballot question submitted to the voters, § 8 also proscribes corporate contributions or expenditures ‘for the purpose of aiding, promoting or preventing the nomination or election of *679any person to public office, or aiding, promoting, or antagonizing the interests of any political party.’... In this respect, the statute is not unlike many other state and federal laws regulating corporate participation in partisan candidate elections. Appellants do not challenge the constitutionality of laws prohibiting or limiting corporate contributions to political candidates or committees, or other means of influencing candidate elections. Cf. Pipefitters v. United States, 407 U. S. 385 (1972); United States v. Automobile Workers, 352 U. S. 567 (1957); United States v. CIO, 335 U. S. 106 (1948). About half of these laws, including the federal law, 2 U. S. C. §441b (1976 ed.) (originally enacted as the Federal Corrupt Practices Act, 34 Stat. 864), by their terms do not apply to referendum votes. Several of the others proscribe or limit spending for ‘political’ purposes, which may or may not cover referenda. See Schwartz v. Romnes, 495 F. 2d 844 (CA2 1974).
“The overriding concern behind the enactment of statutes such as the Federal Corrupt Practices Act was the problem of corruption of elected representatives through the creation of political debts. See United States v. Automobile Workers, supra, at 570-575; Schwartz v. Romnes, supra, at 849-851. The importance of the governmental interest in preventing this occurrence has never been doubted. The case before us presents no comparable problem, and our consideration of a corporation’s right to speak on issues of general public interest implies no comparable right in the quite different context of participation in a political campaign for election to public office. Congress might well be able to demonstrate the existence of a danger of real or apparent corruption in independent expenditures by corporations to influence candidate elections. Cf. Buckley v. Valeo, [424 U. S. 1, 46 (1976)]; Comment, The Regulation of Union Political Activity: Majority and Minority Rights and Remedies, 126 U. Pa. L. Rev. 386, 408-410 (1977).” First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U. S., at 788, n. 26.