Sometimes at the Supreme Court, it is not if you lose, but how. That principle will be on full display in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the campaign finance case the Supreme Court will hear next Tuesday, the second day of the new term. If the government loses big, it could mark the beginning of the end of any limits on campaign contributions given directly to candidates in federal, state, and local elections.
Citizens United and the rise of super PACs are already flooding the election system with money. But so far weve managed to keep a little distance between the money and the candidates themselves. If hard-line conservatives get their way, that distance will evaporate, and soon you could write a multimillion-dollar check that would go right into a candidates bank account. The question is whether Chief Justice John Roberts will hold back the conservative majority back from the brinkthough if he does, Justice Antonin Scalia will surely taunt him for it.
