This Week in Election Speech

The Supreme Court has declined to issue an injunction against the enforcement of a Maine campaign finance law. Unanimously rejecting the petition for relief against disclosure requirements, and 7-2 dismissing the same petition for an injunction to Maine's matching funds program. SCOTUSblog has the basics.

Justices Alito and Scalia were the dissenters, presumably because they would have supported an injunction on the 10-year old Maine Clean Election Act. The opt-in program places a maximum on private fundraising income (e.g. $200,000 for gubernatorial candidates) which must come from individuals not contributing more than $100 each. This is then the weird part of the law: the campaign must then collect checks from individuals of at least $5 per made out to the Maine Clean Elections Fund. Once a candidate turns in enough qualifying contributions (e.g. 3,250 for a gubernatorial race), the candidate receives matching funds to offset spending by either opponents or independent expenditure groups.