Campaign Finance. There are a series of federal laws regulating financing political campaigns and disclosure of campaign contributions. Two primary examples are the Federal Election Campaign Act, enacted in 1971, and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), enacted in 2002.
Federal courts have considered the constitutionality of aspects of these laws on numerous occasions. While provisions requiring disclosure have been upheld, recent opinions have found provisions limiting amounts individuals or entities may contribute to violate constitutional free speech protections. In the 2010 case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court struck down a BCRA provision prohibiting the use of corporate or union general treasury funds to pay for independent political advertisements. That same year, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down BCRA's contribution limits to groups making independent expenditures in SpeechNow v. Federal Election Commission. In 2014, the Supreme Court found that a BCRA provision limiting the aggregate amount an individual can contribute to congressional elections during an election cycle violated the First Amendment in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission.
Constitutional Amendment Process. Under Article V of the United States Constitution, there are two methods for amending the Constitution:
Any amendment proposed under either method must be ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures to take effect.
Legislatures in Vermont, California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have approved resolutions requesting that Congress call a convention to amend the Constitution in response to the Supreme Court's opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Initiative 735. In 2016, Washington voters passed Initiative 735, which requested that Washington's congressional delegation propose a constitutional amendment providing the following:
The Legislature requests that Congress pass and send to the states a proposed constitutional amendment returning to Congress and state legislatures the authority to:
If Congress does not pass a proposed constitutional amendment containing these provisions by November 5, 2026, the Legislature requests that Congress call a convention for the purpose of amending the Constitution to include these provisions as soon as two-thirds of the states have submitted requests for a constitutional convention on the same subject. The request is rescinded if the convention is not limited to this specific purpose. The Legislature urges the legislatures of other states to pass similar resolutions.