Supreme Court rules on high-stakes campaign finance case

By BREANNE DEPPISCH, US SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 15:30, 30 June 2026 | Updated: 15:47, 30 June 2026 The Supreme Court issued a bombshell decision upending campaign finance laws - impacting millions in cash - handing the Republican Party a crucial win months before the midterm elections. The court ruled 6-3 along party lines on Tuesday to lift campaign spending limits - the amount of money political parties can spend to help elect certain candidates.  It's a major victory for the GOP and is expected to have widespread implications on tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending in the US for years to come.  Republicans had argued that spending limits hindered candidates, while Democrats warned it could open the door for big donors to abuse the system.  Current cash limits can reach up to $4 million for Senate races and $127,000 for House races - but depends on the 'voting age' population in the districts in play. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the opinion that limits on spending is a 'severe infringement' on the First Amendment's 'protected political speech.'  'To uphold the political-party coordinated-expenditure limits here could therefore help consign political parties to continued second-tier status as compared to outside groups,' Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion. 'Weakened political parties distort the political system.' 'More speech is generally better than less speech,' he went on.  The high court heard arguments last year in the case, National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission.  The case centered on whether federal limits on campaign spending by political parties and coordinated expenditure limits run afoul of free speech protections under the First Amendment of the Constitution.  Then-Presidential nominee Donald Trump campaigns in North Carolina on the eve of the 2024 presidential election  The Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. Justices ruled on a major campaign finance case Tuesday  President Donald Trump addresses the media in Paris The case was appealed to the high court by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and on behalf of two Senate Republican candidates running for election at the time - among them, now-Vice President JD Vance.  The petitioners had argued in their Supreme Court appeal last year that the campaign spending limits at issue 'severely restrict political party committees from doing what the First Amendment entitles them to do: fully associate with and advocate for their own candidates for federal office.' Any decision from the high court was expected to have widespread implications on campaign spending in the US, further eroding the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. A coalition of Democratic campaign groups vowed last year to combat the effort, which they described as the GOP's bid to 'sow chaos and fundamentally upend our campaign finance system, which would return us to the pre-Watergate era of campaign finance.' Balloons drop at the Republican National Convention in 2024 Supreme Court justices pose for a group portrait in Washington, DC The ruling comes as federal election spending has reached record highs. Presidential candidates in 2024 raised at least $2 billion, according to FEC figures, and spent roughly $1.8 billion in the campaign cycle. During oral arguments, two of Trump's nominees, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, stayed completely silent or only asked one question, giving little indication as to how the high court might rule. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.