Davis v. Federal Election Commission

Davis v. Federal Election Commission
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 22, 2008 Decided June 26, 2008
Full case name	Jack Davis, Appellant v. Federal Election Commission
Docket nos.	07-320
Citations	554 U.S. 724 (more) 128 S.Ct. 2759, 171 L.Ed.2d 737
Subsequent history	None
Holding
§319(a) and (b) of the BCRA are unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment right to spend one's own money to advocate one's own election
Court membership
Case opinions
Majority	Alito, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas; Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer (only as to part II)
Concur/dissent	Stevens, joined by Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer (part II)
Concur/dissent	Ginsburg, joined by Breyer
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I; 2 U.S.C. § 441a–1(a) and (b) (section 319(a) and (b) of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002)

Davis v. Federal Election Commission, 554 U.S. 724 (2008), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that Sections 319(a) and (b) of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (popularly known as the McCain-Feingold Act) unconstitutionally infringed on a candidate's First Amendment rights.

Section 319(b) of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 contained the so-called "Millionaire's Amendment," which required a candidate for federal office in the United States to file a "declaration of intent" regarding how much of the candidate's personal funds he or she intended to spend in the upcoming election. This provision was triggered only if the candidate's "opposition personal funds amount" (OPFA)—the amount of personal funds available to them for expenditure in the race—exceeded $350,000. Additional disclosures were required to be made to the opposition candidate, any involved national political parties, and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) if these personal expenditures exceeded additional, enumerated benchmarks in the legislation. Once the OPFA was triggered, the wealthy candidate would still be subject to the contribution limitations imposed by the BCRA and other federal and state laws. However, Section 319(a) provided that the contribution caps for the non-self-financing opposition candidate were now tripled, and the non-self-financing candidate could receive coordinated contributions and expenditures from his or her national political party without any limitation.

Plaintiff Jack Davis brought suit against the Federal Election Commission, alleging that the BCRA disclosure and limitation restrictions on wealthy candidates violated his First Amendment rights.

A three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia found that the court had jurisdiction over the case, but upheld the BCRA against Davis' challenge. Davis appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

John "Jack" Davis is an American businessman and founder of the I Squared R Element Company which produces and sells heating elements. He has run four times for the Congressional seat representing New York's 26th congressional district, in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2011; all bids have been unsuccessful. In the first three of those elections, Davis, a former Republican, ran as a Democrat. For the 2004 and 2006 candidacies, he was the Democratic nominee and faced no primary challengers in his unsuccessful bids against incumbent Republican Tom Reynolds; in the 2008 race, he finished in third place in a three-way Democratic primary to Alice Kryzan. In the 2011 election, Davis, who has since changed his registration back to Republican, ran on the "Tea Party" line, a line created by Buffalo area Libertarian Party activist James Ostrowski primarily to run candidates against endorsed Republicans. (Davis sought the endorsements of the Republican and Conservative parties in the 2011 election, but did not receive either one.)