On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to take up Vice President Vance and GOP committees’ bid to strike down federal limits on political parties’ spending.
The case, National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, was originally appealed to the court by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and on behalf of two Senate Republican candidates running for election in 2022— among them, now-Vice President J.D. Vance.
It centers on whether federal limits on campaign spending from political parties runs afoul of First Amendment protections, including free speech, under the U.S. Constitution.
Twenty-four years ago, the Supreme Court upheld “coordinated party expenditure limits,” which were originally passed as part of broader campaign finance reforms in the 1970s.
In their petition to the high court, the plaintiffs said it is “past time” to clarify the earlier decision or overrule it outright.
“And it likely marks the last chance this Court will get to tackle the question for quite some time, as neither committees nor candidates will squander their limited resources on another challenge if this petition is denied,” their attorneys at Jones Day wrote.
The challenged provision limits how the Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee (DNC) and committees can spend their funds when they’re cooperating with a candidate.
The case comes as federal election spending has reached record highs. Presidential candidates in 2024 raised at least $2 billion and spent roughly $1.8 billion in 2024, according to FEC figures.
The Trump administration supported Vance’s ask that the Supreme Court to take up the challenge.
“A party performs that function most effectively in cooperation with the candidates themselves. By restricting that cooperation, the party-expenditure limit severely burdens the rights of parties and candidates alike,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in court filings, telling the justices they should appoint outside counsel to argue the other side.
The Hill reports that days later, the DNC, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee jointly asked to be the ones to defend the spending limits, a move no one opposed.
“The Solicitor General’s reversal leaves the 50-year-old limitation on coordinated spending by political parties, and this Court’s 24-year-old precedent upholding it, entirely undefended before the Court,” it wrote in court filings.
