McCutcheon vs. FEC- Part 2: Campaign Finance and the Supreme
Court 1971-2001  Not 100 Years of Settled Law  Soon after the
Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) was passed in 1971, there
were challenges against the law which required Congress to form
the FEC and to amend the law in response to court challenges.
Perhaps the most infamous of these decisions was the landmark
1976 decision, Buckley vs. Valeo. In 1974, over the veto of
President Ford, Congress enacted amendments to FECA which was
passed in 1971. In Buckley vs. Valeo, there was a mixed bag of
results. The decision was 7-2 (a per curiam decision at that),
but more of a plurality decision than anything else. For
example, Justice Byron White argued that the law should be
sustained in whole under the concept of deference to Congress in
this area. Chief Justice Burger argued that the entire scheme of
limiting campaign contributions and expenditures should be
struck down as violating the First Amendment. But, the decision
actually upheld the basic premise