Just one year after the victory of a Republican-leaning political action committee in the Supreme Court, another campaign finance case, which raised the problem of contributions made by an ideological organization as decided. A non-profit corporation, Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCL) produced and distributed a newsletter entitled Everything You Need to Know to Vote Pro-Life. As this was issued before the primary elections to Congress in 1978, it agitated for those candidates who supported a conservative pro-life ideology. According to the Federal Election Commission, such a contribution to an election campaign by a corporation violated the Federal Election Campaign Act, which prohibited the use of general corporate funds for federal election expenditures. The case against MCL was brought to the court, and on appeal was decided by the Supreme Court in 1986.

In a unanimous opinion (with two Justices concurring), the Court found that the newsletter prepared by the non-profit corporation before the primary elections was protected by the First Amendment, and, therefore, that the provision of the Federal Election Campaign Act banning various forms of corporate contributions to the electoral process was unconstitutional. Although the Court found that MCL's actions directly endorsed certain pro-life candidates, it argued that the idea of expenditure itself constitutes elements of express advocacy, thus being consistent with the elements of the Buckley ruling. The decision did not mean that any kind of contribution made by corporations or political action committees was acceptable, but that expenditures made by a non-profit organization, even if they constituted express advocacy communication, were within the scope of freedom of speech.

MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN announced the judgment of the Court…