Campaign Finance Reform

By evamtg
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    Reforming Campaign Financing

  • The Federalist Papers

    These essays could've been an attempt from James Madison (though there are two other authors James Jay and Alexander Hamilton) to show how the new Constitution would keep special interests away from controlling the government.

  • The Bill of Rights

    The Bill of Rights was passed by Congress. The writers of this historical document thought that the first amendment ( it's about free speech) would also make people working for the government more open and responsible.

  • The Progressive Movement (1900 - 1918)

    Progressive theorists thought that the government with the constitution didn't fit society anymore so they wanted to change it. In 1894, Elihu Root (who wanted to keep the condtitution as it was) gave a speech to change laws in New York. It didn't change the laws of New York but it did start the movement nowadays of limiting campaign contributions and speech, and finding also a weakness in that movement.

  • The Tillman Act

    The Tillman Act was passed. This law states that corporations and national banks cannot give give money or anything like that to federal campaigns.

  • Federal Corrupt Practices Act

    This act was used before the FECA was made. It is about disclosure rules and spending limits for parties. This act only applied to certain groups of people though. For example, it didn't apply to candidates. It also wasn't enforced very much and had few consequences. It was amended in 1911 and 1925, which made it a lot better.

  • The Federal Election Campaign Act

    The FECA was passed.

  • Amendments to the FECA and the FEC

    The FECA was amended and is almost like the laws we have now. This FECA puts limits on how much money an individual or a company can can give to a campaign. Also the FEC (Federal Election Commission) was started. Also, the Buckley v. Valeo case made this law change a little because in the case, it was made clear that limiting the things you can do with the money violates the First Amendment. (More amendments follow in 1976, 1977, 1982, 1983 and 1984.)

  • Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act

    BCRA for short, this act was made to stop the loopholes when dealing with soft money. It stopped it four ways.
    The BCRA tries to resolve the “issue ads” put on by non candidate organizations and individuals. The BCRA gives the definition of an issue ad. It also amends parts of the FECA and other laws. It also kept coordinated electioneering communications as contributions, thus limiting those to the limits stated somewhere in the bill. There are also other restrictions and such.

  • Citizens United Case

    This case argued that parts of the BCRA are unconstitutional. The Citizens United organization also wanted to show a movie but the BCRA restricted it and they said that it violates the First Amendment. It was decided that those parts were constitutional because the same thing was decided in another case and the rules did apply to theit movie.