(PresidentialWire.com)- Texas Senator Ted Cruz has reason to celebrate after he scored a massive win against the Federal Election Commission last week over a disagreement on how campaign contributions can be used after election campaigns are over.
Cruz brought a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission over their rules stopping candidates from using post-election campaign funds to repay personal loans that were used to facilitate their campaign. The suit attempted to strike down Section 304 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 which limits the amount of campaign funds that can be used to pay pre-election loans to just $250,000.
The law says that any balance on a loan that goes beyond $250,000 is considered a contribution by the candidate.
That was a problem for Senator Cruz, as he took two loans that totaled $250,000 to assist in his campaign just one day before the election. Existing law meant that the campaign would either be able to repay that loan using pre-election funds within a period of 20 days of the election, or repay a maximum of $250,000 using post-election contributions. It meant that Senator Cruz was then considered to have made a campaign contribution of $10,000.
However, the Texas Senator and his lawyers said that the limit on what can be repaid using post-election funds is a violation of the First Amendment as it would restrict political speech, and while the FEC initially said that Cruz didn’t have legal standing to bring a lawsuit, a three-judge panel agreed with Senator Cruz on Thursday and said that the limit on loan repayments “burdens political speech” and therefore implicates First Amendment speech protections.
Judge Neomi Rao of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said that the government had failed to demonstrate the limiting loan repayments has any effect on preventing corruption and that it also violated the First Amendment.
The decision granted a summary judgment for Cruz and his campaign, and a Cruz spokesperson said it was a “resounding victory” for Americans’ First Amendment rights.
