ACLU Board Votes to Change Its Campaign Finance Policy

See here. Though the ACLU, on a 36-30 vote, continued its policy of opposition to spending limits as violating the First Amendment,

    The Board did, however, vote to revise its policy on campaign finance regulation in the following two ways:
    * The policy accepts spending limits as a condition of voluntary public financing plans. The ACLU supports such plans as long as they ensure candidates have a true choice as to whether to participate and provide sufficient and equitable funding for all legally qualified candidates to run an effective campaign.
    * The policy permits reasonable limits on campaign contributions to candidates. This contrasts with prior policy, which opposed all such limits. The revised policy acknowledges that very large contributions to candidates may lead to undue influence or corruption and, at a minimum, have the appearance of impropriety and undermine public confidence in the electoral system’s integrity.

This is a very interesting change. I just completed a draft on the history of Buckley v. Valeo, which should be up on SSRN shortly. That draft explores the ACLU’s views on campaign finance regulation in the 1970s, and it mentions the later split among those in the organization over the issue.

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