Buckley v. Valeo Establishes Framework for Corporate Political Spending

In the landmark Buckley v. Valeo decision, the Supreme Court fundamentally reshaped campaign finance law by ruling that expenditure limits are unconstitutional. The Court distinguished between direct campaign contributions and independent expenditures, creating a legal framework that would enable massive corporate political spending. While the decision ostensibly prohibited direct coordination between candidates and political action committees, it inadvertently established mechanisms that would later allow sophisticated coordination strategies, culminating in the rise of Super PACs in the 2010s.