Wiley Rein’s Michael Toner Discusses Campaign Contribution Limits on MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown”

Michael Toner, co-chair of the Election Law & Government Ethics Practice, appeared on MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” with Chuck Todd on February 25 to discuss a challenge to federal campaign contribution limits that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear. The case, McCutcheon v. FEC, seeks to eliminate the Federal Election Campaign Act’s biennial limits on individual contributions. Currently, individuals may donate an aggregate total of $48,600 to federal candidates and $74,600 to non-candidate committees such as political parties and PACs. The suit does not aim to exceed contribution limits to any particular committee, but wants to allow for donations to more committees than the aggregate contribution cap allows.

Mr. Toner, a former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), said that “it’s unlikely in this particular case that per-recipient limits would be swept away,” and added that the case is “very important because it gives the Court an opportunity to develop a governing standard for contribution limit cases.” Citing Buckley v. Valeo, a landmark Supreme Court case involving the constitutionality of the Federal Election Campaign Act, Mr. Toner stated that “the court has been much more deferential regarding contribution limits and much tougher on spending limits. Citizens United was a spending limits case, but now there’s a chance, perhaps, to alter the governing standard for contribution limit cases.”

Click here to watch a video of the program.