Divided Court Backs Campaign Financing Law

What Sheldon Wants: Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is determined to spend whatever it takes to oust President Barack Obama. The Supreme Court says he can keep on spending. Image by getty images
A divided Supreme Court upheld its decision in the Citizens United case that allows unlimited donations to political super-PACs, setting the stage for a dramatic partisan race for cash in the fall election.
By a 5-4 margin, the court’s conservative majority struck down a state law that would have chipped away at its 2010 decision that permitted corporations and super-rich to give as much as they want to political groups as long as they do not directly coordinate activities with candidates.
The ruling allowed Jewish casino mogul Sheldon Adelson to spend $35 million so far to bolster Republican candidates, making him a key target for Democrats and advocates for good government. Adelson says he may spend up to $100 million in an effort to help oust President Barack Obama from the White House.
The high court also rejected parts of Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law. It upheld the provision allowing police to automatically check for immigration papers whenever they stop suspects, but said it could be subject to further challenge.
The court is expected to release its ruling on Obama’s sweeping health insurance reform law later in the week.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Make a Passover Gift Today!
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Communications The Forward Announces Gifts of Domains Yiddish.com and Yiddish.org by Elie Hirschfeld and his wife Sarah Hirschfeld, MD
-
Culture How this Marc Chagall painting explains Pope Francis’ soul
-
Opinion He’s one of Israel’s worst extremists. So why is Yale legitimizing him?
-
Fast Forward FSU shooting suspect used neo-Nazi imagery on social media, ADL finds
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.