A Maine ballot measure deliberately engineered by Larry Lessig targets SpeechNow v. FEC, the untested lower-court ruling that enabled unlimited super PAC contributions.
Key Takeaways
SpeechNow (2010 DC Circuit) is the lesser-known companion to Citizens United; it removed contribution limits to super PACs and was never challenged at SCOTUS.
Super PACs now outspend all candidate campaigns combined; $2B in the last cycle was dark money with no public donor disclosure.
Obama AG Eric Holder declined to challenge SpeechNow in 2010, reasoning it affected only a “limited subset” – a bet that badly miscalculated the outcome.
Maine’s case already extracted a landmark admission: a federal judge wrote that “contributions to independent expenditure PACs can serve as the quid in a quid pro quo arrangement,” directly undermining SpeechNow’s core premise.
Lessig’s legal strategy stays within Roberts Court precedent, using Buckley v. Valeo’s anti-corruption doctrine rather than asking the court to reverse Citizens United outright.
Hacker News Comment Review
The single comment is pure cynicism – no technical, legal, or strategic analysis of the SpeechNow argument, the Maine court record, or the Lessig filing strategy.
