This is a story in Sportico about HLS’s Election Law Clinic’s amicus brief on behalf of a group of billionaires arguing that Maine’s limit on Super PAC contributions doesn’t burden their speech and serves important goals including preventing corruption and avoiding the distortion of the political system.
Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban has teamed up with four other billionaires—hedge fund manager William von Mueffling, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and venture capitalists Steve Jurvetson and Vin Ryan—to argue in an amicus brief that their enormous wealth shouldn’t provide them more political influence than other Americans and that a Maine campaign finance law limiting contributions to super political action committees (super PACs) is both sensible and constitutional.
“Because of their wealth,” the brief says of the billionaires, “amici have the capacity to be extraordinarily influential in America’s political system. But amici didn’t ask for this power. And they don’t want it.”
The brief concerns Dinner Table Action & For Our Future v. William J. Schneider et al., a case brought by two Maine super PACs that accept contributions exceeding Maine’s limit. Several Maine officials, including Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices chairman William J. Schneider, are the defendants.
The case centers on whether a citizen referendum, overwhelmingly approved by Maine voters last year, complies with First Amendment political speech protections. The resulting act sets a $5,000 limit for super PACs. It also includes disclosure requirements regarding the identity of donors and donations related to funding communications that advocate for the election or defeat of a particular candidate. The referendum was backed by Equal Citizens and its founder, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig. . . .
Last Thursday, professors Samuel Jacob Davis and Ruth Greenwood of the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School submitted an amicus brief on behalf of Cuban and his colleagues. . . .
Cuban’s group sees Maine’s law as “reasonable” and “necessary to protect” democracy from “the kind of corruption that plagues too many elections.” That is especially important in a sparsely populated state like Maine, where “a relatively small amount of outside money can play an outsized role in local races that should be focused on local issues.”
The brief contends that regulating super PAC contributions imposes minimal constraints on free speech rights. It asserts that super PACs “give voters little useful information and often express a muddled political message,” with donations “often funneled through shell entities” known as “dark money organizations.” . . .
Further, the brief warns that unlimited super PAC contributions “create a serious risk of actual quid pro quo corruption and its appearance.” It cites former U.S. Senator—and now convicted felon—Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who was accused of using super PAC contributions as payoffs for influencing a Medicare billing dispute involving a friend. The brief also points out that super PAC contributors have been appointed to high-ranking positions. For instance, current U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon “had no teaching experience prior to her appointment, but she had donated tens of millions of dollars to various super PACs supporting the president who appointed her.”