In a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that bans unregulated donations to political parties from wealthy backers, corporations or unions. The justices also backed provisions of the law that control campaign-season political advertising. Voting to uphold the law were Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. They wrote in the majority opinion “The prevention of corruption or its appearance constitutes a sufficiently important interest to justify political contribution limits.” Ruling against the law were Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

Both the National Rifle Association and the AFL-CIO expressed outrage over the decision. Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, said the ruling was “the most significant change in the First Amendment since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which tried to make it a crime to criticize a member of Congress.” The Center for Responsive Politics praised the decision. Its executive director Larry Noble said the court “confirmed what many political actors and observers have known for years: that large political contributions buy access to elected officials and raise the potential for corruption within the political system.” Meanwhile the Public Interest Research Group criticized the court for not going far enough to reform the campaign finance laws. The court upheld a change in the law that increased the amount individuals can give to a candidate from $1,000 to $2,000.