The U.S. Supreme Court will take another look at Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Tex.) challenge to federal campaign finance rules that limit the repayment of candidate loans to their campaigns.
Though a special procedure available for campaign finance challenges, a three-judge district court panel found that federal rules dictating when and how much a campaign can pay back to the candidate violated the First Amendment.
A candidate’s political expression is burdened when she is “inhibited from making a personal loan, or incurring one, out of concern that she will be left holding the bag on any unpaid campaign debt,” the lower court said.
The Supreme Court agreed to review that ruling Thursday.
The Biden administration urged the justices to do so, saying in part that Cruz’s injury was “self-inflicted.” It noted that the campaign was free to pay back all of Cruz’s loans, so long as it did so within 20 days of the election.
“Senator Cruz’s loss of $10,000 thus was attributable to appellees’ ‘personal choice[s],’ not to any action by the FEC,” the government said.
The case is FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate, U.S., No. 21-12.
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
To read more articles log in.
Learn more about a Bloomberg Law subscription.