HELENA – The U.S. Supreme Court Monday declined to hear a challenge to Montana’s campaign-contribution limits, letting the 24-year-old law stand.
The high court, without comment, rejected the appeal of a 2017 appellate court ruling that upheld Montana’s monetary limits on what individuals, political-action committees and political parties can give to state candidates.
Jaime MacNaughton, an attorney for Montana’s commissioner of political practices, told MTN News Monday that the court’s decision is a big win for the state and a level playing field in campaigns, when it comes to ensuring that single, big donors can’t over-influence a race.
“The real issue here is that everybody has the same ability to show their expression of support for a candidate,” she said. “Montanans have a long history of believing in that and fighting for it. … This is a citizen initiative that was put back in, in 1994.”
Several Montana-based business, Republican Party and conservative groups challenged the limits almost nine years ago. They are represented by James Bopp Jr., an Indiana-based lawyer and prominent critic of limits on campaign spending and contributions.
Bopp could not be reached for comment Monday.
Montana’s law, enacted by voter initiative in 1994, no only limits what each PAC, individual and political party can give to a candidate, but also has aggregate limits on how much candidates can accept from special-interest PACs.
For example, state Senate candidates can accept up to $2,850 per election in PAC donations.
Each individual and PAC can give no more than $1,320 to gubernatorial candidates. Other statewide candidates can accept up to $680 a year from one donor and legislative candidates up to $360.
Political parties can give up to $24,500 per election to a gubernatorial candidate. The amounts are adjusted for inflation every two years.
U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell struck down the limits in 2012 and 2015 as an unconstitutional limit on free speech, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled him in October 2017 and said Montana’s limits are acceptable.
The plaintiffs then appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to take the case Monday.
Bopp had argued that Montana’s contribution limits are so low that they “distort” campaigns and encourage campaign spending in other, less-transparent ways.
Gov. Steve Bullock’s office said Monday that Montanans “have time and time again chosen transparency and contribution limits over big money” and that with Monday’s decision, “those protections are here to stay.”
However, Montana’s campaign-finance regulations still face another court challenge. The 2015 Disclose Act, designed to crack down on the reporting by so-called “dark money” groups that spend on Montana elections, has also been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
MacNaughton said she was “relieved” to have the contribution-limit case completed after so many years. She said the low contribution limits make Montana’s political system more responsive to the grassroots.
“Instead of having higher contribution limits, which allow you to get money from fewer individuals, Montanans have said `We want you to go out, shake our hands, come talk to us and raise your money directly from us, and here fro us what our issues are,’” she said. “So when you show up at the Legislature, you know what we’re about.”
