One of the less-known federal campaign finance restrictions controls how much money anyone may give during a 2-year cycle to all federal campaigns combined. On September 28, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., upheld these limits. Here is the 15-page decision. The plaintiffs include an Alabama voter who wishes to give between $1,776 and $2,500 to dozens of different Republican congressional candidates. Another plaintiff is the Republican National Committee.

Current law sets limits of an aggregate of $46,200 to candidates and their authorized committees or more than $70,800 to anyone else. Of that $70,800, no more than $46,200 may be contributions to political committees that are not national political party committees. Therefore, the plaintiff, Shaun McCutcheon, may not give the maximum individual contribution to more than eighteen candidates, even though he wants to give to dozens more candidates. The decision says that the U.S. Supreme Court has, over the years, upheld existing contribution limits to political parties, and therefore the U.S. District Court will uphold this particular law. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.