Today, the Supreme Court ruled that combined limits on the spending of individuals regarding political donations was not constitutional.
The ruling stated that the current limits - Approximately $40,000 - on campaigns were in violation of the first amendment. Of course, the court did not touch limits on individual races, or political action committees. Therefor, you are limited in how much you can spend per race - But you can purchase into as many races as possible.
So, in theory, this sort of makes sense. It does seem arbitrary to try and limit how many races someone can contribute to, doesn't it?
But let's not kid ourselves - What portion of the population can actually, personally, spare twice the amount of money that a family of four at the poverty line makes, in a year, to donate to political candidates and organizations?
Honestly? Very few.
The role of money in politics in the united states is, frankly, abhorrent. Our supreme court, over the last few years, has consistently expressed the opinion that monetary donations, and the use of money to purchase media to espouse a viewpoint, is in fact, constitutionally protected speech.
