{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-whitehouse-colleagues-file-amicus-brief-urging-supreme-court-to-reject-yet-another-gop-effort-to-flood-politics-with-corporate-and-mega-donor-cash", "Booker, Whitehouse, Colleagues File Amicus Brief Urging Supreme Court to Reject Yet Another GOP Effort to Flood Politics with Corporate and Mega-Donor Cash", "2025-10-07", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) filed an amicus curiae \u2014 or \u201cfriend of the court\u201d \u2014 brief in National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), in which the National Republican Senatorial Committee is asking the Supreme Court to strike down federal limits on expenditures by political parties made in coordination with political candidates. Political parties can accept larger donations from donors than can political candidates, and striking down coordinated party expenditure limits would make it easier for political parties to pour unlimited money into elections across the country.\n\n\u201cWe have already seen how this Court\u2019s holding in Citizens United opened the floodgates to billions in dark money, allowing novelties like super PACs to emerge. These consequences distorted our political process while exalting the wealthiest voices at the expense of ordinary voters. In the years since, rulings by this Court have continued to erode commonsense campaign finance laws meant to prevent corruption,\u201d wrote the senators.\n\n\u201cThis Court should heed the lessons learned in the aftermath of Citizens United and decline the request to further distort our political process by undermining Congress\u2019s ability to regulate campaign finance. Rather than considering the reversal ofColorado II, the Court should reconsider Citizens United at the first possible opportunity,\u201d continued the senators.\n\nThe Supreme Court\u2019s landmark 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC struck down a key provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which has enabled giant corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals to engage in unlimited political spending. 501(c)(4) organizations have become fountains of political dark money, and dark-money front groups were created or co-opted to obscure the political maneuverings of industry influence. In the years since Citizens United, the Supreme Court has struck down other commonsense provisions like the aggregate limits on the amount an individual may contribute (McCutcheon v. FEC) and has invalidated the post-election loan repayment limit (FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate).\n\nThis series of Court rulings has eroded fundamental campaign finance rules and thwarted Congressional efforts to limit corruption in American democracy. The senators\u2019 brief highlights the explosion of political spending by the fossil fuel industry and the derailing of serious bipartisan efforts to combat climate change as a direct consequence of the Court\u2019s campaign finance rulings.\n\n\u201cOne obvious example of how vast contributions by well-heeled corporate and private entities have had malignant practical effect is in the corrupting efforts of the fossil fuel industry. Through the use of their vast resources, they have been able to drown out the public\u2019s voice and thwart extremely popular attempts at reform,\u201d wrote the senators. \u201cSince Citizens United, the number of serious bipartisan bills in the Senate on climate change, over a period of now more than fifteen years, is zero. The before-and-after of dark money\u2019s power could not be more stark,\u201d added the senators.\n\nThe senators also point out the false fact-finding in Citizens United. The Supreme Court disregarded Congress\u2019s extensive factual findings supporting major campaign finance laws to declare\u2014without any record evidence\u2014that unlimited political expenditures would not lead to corruption, and relied on two factual predicates to do so, both of which have been since proven false.\n\n\u201cThe appropriate remedy is not to further dismantle Congress\u2019s anti-corruption protections, but to reconsider Citizens United. It is that decision that unleashed brazen coordination between super PACs and candidates, belying the supposed \u2018independence\u2019 of the newly unlimited funding. Billions in dark money, where the true source of a political donation is obscured from the public, has been spent since Citizens United, belying the supposed \u2018transparency\u2019 of the unlimited spending,\u201d wrote the senators. \u201cOur present reality explodes the factual presuppositions underlying the Court\u2019s central reasoning in Citizens United. This Court should take the first possible opportunity to revisit and correct those false facts.\u201d\n\nCounsel of record for the senators is Gerson Smoger & Associates, P.C.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-whitehouse-colleagues-file-amicus-brief-urging-supreme-court-to-reject-yet-another-gop-effort-to-flood-politics-with-corporate-and-mega-donor-cash"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7263799197971821, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}