Proft v. Raoul

Dist. Ct. did not err in dismissing plaintiffs’ lawsuit seeking to overturn Illinois state law’s ban on political independent expenditure committees from making campaign contributions and from coordinating spending with candidates, even though Illinois Election Code (10 ILCS 5/9-8.5(h), (h-5)) allows individuals and certain entities to contribute to and coordinate with candidates without limits when self-funding or independent expenditures exceed threshold amount. Illinois Election Code never permits independent expenditure committees such as plaintiff to contribute to candidates, and while plaintiffs argued that by excluding independent expenditure committees from making such contributions and coordinating expenditures with candidates, Illinois had violated their First Amendment rights, as well as their protection under Equal Protection Clause when it allows others to do so, Ct. of Appeals found that Illinois could do so under intermediate scrutiny standard, since substantial risk of actual or apparent quid-pro-quo corruption would arise if instant ban would be lifted. Ct. further noted that partial lifting of instant ban would permit individuals to circumvent Illinois’s contribution disclosure regime.