High Court Will Not Hear Challenge to NYC Campaign Finance Law

Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a December 2011 federal appeals court decision which found that New York City’s anti-corruption campaign finance laws do not violate free speech rights.

Last December, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2^nd Circuit held that New York City’s rules limiting donations by entities doing business with the city can make (known as “pay to play”), and requiring candidates to disclose all contributions from individuals and organizations that do business with the city were an appropriate means of preventing corruption.

(Read my prior post on December’s low court decision here.)

The Court’s decision not to hear the challenge to New York City’s law — on the same day in which it overruled Montana’s law prohibiting corporate spending on political campaigns – leaves campaign finance law relating to corporations in an interesting place.

The Court appears to be saying that states cannot stop corporations from engaging in political spending, but that narrowly drawn limits on direct candidate donations by corporations that do business with public entities are acceptable.