Federal Court Rejects State Limits on Some PAC Donations

Earlier today, a federal appeals court ordered a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of New York’s $150,000 limit on individual donations to independent political action committees. The court’s action reverses a decision handed down last week (read my blog post on that decision).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit based its decision on the Citizens United decision, where the U.S. Supreme Court found “the government has no anti-corruption interest in limited independent expenditures.”

The ruling will allow supporters of Republican New York City mayoral candidate Joe Lhota to spend as much as they are able to raise in an independent expenditure effort promoting Lhota.

With just 12 days to go before the election, and with polls indicating that Lhota trails his Democratic opponent by as much as 40 percentage points, there may be little immediate impact to the decision.