U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Let Businesses Donate to Candidates

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court declined an opportunity to give businesses broader rights to contribute money to political candidates and causes.

The justices, without comment Monday, refused to question a Massachusetts law that bars for-profit corporations from making campaign donations.

Two family-owned businesses, represented by the libertarian Goldwater Institute, challenged the law and urged the Supreme Court to overturn a 2003 decision that upheld limits on corporate contributions.

The case offered Chief Justice John Roberts’s court a chance to expand the 2010 Citizens United ruling, which said corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited sums on political causes. The Supreme Court has been more willing to back limits on contributions to candidates.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest tribunal, upheld the state law as a legitimate means of guarding against corruption.

The two businesses, 1A Auto Inc. and 126 Self Storage Inc., said Massachusetts must at least let corporations donate through political action committees, as is allowed at the federal level.

The appeal also argued that Massachusetts was improperly putting tighter restrictions on for-profit businesses than on nonprofit corporations and labor unions. The Massachusetts court didn’t resolve that issue because it said it isn’t clear what rules apply to nonprofits and unions.

The case is 1A Auto v. Sullivan, 18-733.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo

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