1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Campaign Finance and the First Amendment: Supreme Court Considers Constitutionality of Limits on Repayment of Candidate Loans April 26, 2022 Campaign finance is back before the Supreme Court. In Federal E
2、lection Commission (FEC) v. Ted Cruz for Senate, the Court is faced with a challenge to a federal campaign finance law that establishes a $250,000 limit on the amount of post-election campaign contributions that may be used to repay a candidate for personal campaign loans made pre-election. Specific
3、ally, the Court is evaluating whether the appellees, Senator Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz and his campaign committee, Ted Cruz for Senate (Senator Cruzs principal campaign committee), have standing to challenge the limit and, if so, whether the limit violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendmen
4、t. In June 2021, a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia invalidated the limit as unconstitutional under the First Amendment. If the Court adopts the reasoning of the district court, this case could affect the constitutionality of other current campaign finance la