Citizens United v. FEC

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States ruling that certain campaign finance restrictions are inconsistent with the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. The court struck down Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which prohibited "electioneering communications" paid for by corporations, labor unions, and other organizations. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United in a 5-4 decision, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing the majority opinion. All Democratic-appointed justices dissented.

The Supreme Court's ruling in favor of Citizens United sparked significant controversy, with some viewing it as a defense of American principles of free speech and a safeguard against government overreach, and others criticizing it for reaffirming the longstanding principle of corporate personhood, and for allowing large corporations to wield disproportionate political power by allowing them to spend unlimited amounts of money to support their chosen political candidates, provided the corporations were technically independent of the campaigns.

Kennedy's opinion holds that the prohibition of all independent expenditures by corporations and unions in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act violated the First Amendment. The ruling bars restrictions on corporations', unions', and nonprofit organizations' independent expenditures, allowing groups to independently support political candidates with financial resources. In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the ruling represented "a rejection of the common sense of the American people."

Reactions to the decision were sharply divided. Typical were those of Senator Mitch McConnell, who called the decision "an important step in the direction of restoring the First Amendment rights", and of president Barack Obama, who said the decision "gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington".