Justices Reject Alabama Campaign-Finance Case

(CN) — The Supreme Court said Monday they won't take up a case challenging Alabama's ban on the transfer of campaign contributions between political action committees.

The decision of the justices left in place an 11th Circuit ruling that the 2010 law does not unconstitutionally restrict political speech.

In passing the law in 2010, the Alabama State Legislature banned transfers of funds from one PAC to another.

The law was a disaster for the Alabama Democratic Conference because it prohibited it from receiving money from the Alabama Democratic Party. ADC's primary purpose is to bring newly registered black voters into the Democratic Party fold, and infusions of cash from the party was its primary fundraising vehicle.

In order to comply with the law, the the Alabama Democratic Conference established separate banks accounts for candidate contributions and its other expenditures. It then proceeded to sue to the state and the Alabama attorney general, arguing in the 2011 case that the law violated its First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

A federal judge in Birmingham, Alabama granted ADC summary judgment, and enjoined the state from enforcing the law.

But 11th Circuit reversed the ruling, asserting, "in prohibiting limits on independent expenditures, Citizens United heavily emphasized the independent, uncoordinated nature of those expenditures, which alleviates concerns about corruption. But the independence of an organization like the ADC, which both makes independent expenditures and contributes directly to candidates, may be called into question and concerns of corruption may reappear.”

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