In a 6-3 vote the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a campaign finance rule regulating the repayment of loans by a candidate to his own campaign, handing a win on May 16 to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who challenged the Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulation.
The appeal to the Supreme Court was brought by the FEC after a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia unanimously ruled against the agency last year.
The Biden administration had argued that disallowing the rule would open the door to bribery in elections, but the high court found the restriction on candidates’ post-election use of political contributions to recover personal funds lent to the campaign ran afoul of First Amendment speech protections.
…