Blog Post

Making It Reign: Bow Down to Money (as Speech)

Tracy Alice Olson.

Specifically, this Comment considers reconciling the level of scrutiny and deference due to campaign contributions and disclosure requirements with campaign expenditures. Part I traces the historical legal basis of campaign finance. Beginning with the Constitution, the background establishes the standards applied to free speech and campaign finance, including: anonymous speakers in the campaign finance context; recent congressional campaign finance legislation; and current challenges to campaign finance regulation. Part II proposes a reevaluation and elevation of the intermediate scrutiny standard to the strict scrutiny standard to better align campaign contributions and disclosure requirements as free speech.

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