BNA reports ($). A snippet:
Attorney Kenneth Gross of the firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom said in a presentation at the conference that business corporations increasingly are being asked to contribute to the Super PACs and other independent spending entities created in the wake of Citizens United and other recent rulings. But, Gross suggested that most companies are proceeding cautiously.In Citizens United, the Supreme Court struck down decades-old restrictions on corporate and union spending in federal campaigns. Other decisions by the lower courts and the FEC have held that corporations and others may make unlimited contributions to entities that, in turn, make independent expenditures.A key area of concern for contributors in this new era, Gross said, is whether the PACs they give money to could run afoul of FEC regulations defining when campaign spending is considered coordinated with—and thus a contribution to—a candidate. While corporations now are allowed to fund independent expenditures, corporate contributions to candidates remain illegal. Charges of coordination could embroil a PAC or other group in an investigation by the FEC or even the Justice Department, Gross added.