Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce

Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 31, 1989 Decided March 27, 1990
Full case name	Austin, Michigan Secretary of State, et al. v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce
Citations	494 U.S. 652 (more) 110 S. Ct. 1391; 108 L. Ed. 2d 652; 1990 U.S. LEXIS 1665; 58 U.S.L.W. 4371
Holding
The Michigan Campaign Finance Act, which prohibited corporations from using treasury money to support or oppose candidates in elections, did not violate the First or the Fourteenth Amendment.
Court membership
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall, joined by Rehnquist, Brennan, White, Blackmun, Stevens
Concurrence	Brennan
Concurrence	Stevens
Dissent	Scalia
Dissent	Kennedy, joined by O'Connor, Scalia
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. I, XIV
Overruled by
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. ___ (2010)

Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652 (1990) is a United States corporate law case of the Supreme Court of the United States holding that the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, which prohibited corporations from using treasury money to make independent expenditures to support or oppose candidates in elections, did not violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court upheld the restriction on corporate speech, stating, "Corporate wealth can unfairly influence elections"; however, the Michigan law still allowed the corporation to make such expenditures from a segregated fund.

The Michigan Campaign Finance Act banned corporations from spending treasury money on "independent expenditures to support or oppose candidates in elections for state offices." The Act had one loophole-if a corporation had an independent fund solely used for political purposes the law did not apply. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce sought to use its general funds to publish an advertisement in a local newspaper to support a candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives,

Louis J. Caruso, Lansing, Michigan, argued on the side of the appellants (Austin). Richard D. McLellan, Lansing, Michigan, argued for the respondent (Michigan Chamber of Commerce).

In an opinion by Justice Marshall, the Court recognized a state's compelling interest in combating a "different type of corruption in the political arena: the corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth that are accumulated with the help of the corporate form and that have little or no correlation to the public's support for the corporation's political ideas."

Justice Kennedy wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Scalia and O'Connor.

The decision was overruled by Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 50 (2010).