Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971

The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 was the third major regulatory scheme to address the effects of money in electoral politics, following the Tillman Act and the Federal Corrupt Practices Act. Yet it replicated many of the flaws of its predecessors, such as the conspicuous absence of any meaningful system of enforcement. In 1974, the Watergate scandal prompted Congress to strengthen the new legislation with a series of major amendment. Within weeks of President Ford's reluctant signature, an ideologically varied group of plaintiffs banded together to challenge the new amendments. Interpreting a limitation on the amount of money that could be spent on speech as a direct limitation on speech itself, contrary to the First Amendment to the Constitution, the Supreme Court invalidated the limitations on candidates' expenditures. The Court's evisceration of the 1974 amendments in Buckley v. Valeo and its rejection of congressional rationale for limiting the flow of money into electoral politics-precipitated three decades of circumvention.