Supremes rule for Cruz on campaign loans

The Supreme Court struck down a provision of campaign finance law involving large loans from candidates to their own campaigns on Monday in a victory for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

The court’s conservative majority voted 6-3 in favor of Cruz’s challenge to the provision that bans candidates from repaying loans of more than $250,000 with cash raised after Election Day.

In his decision, the measure “burdens core political speech without proper justification,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.

Justice Elena Kagan countered that the ruling “green-lights all the sordid bargains Congress thought right to stop.”

It “can only bring this country’s political system into further disrepute,” she added, writing for a three-judge liberal minority.

The case involves a section of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that states if a candidate lends their campaign money before an election, the campaign cannot repay the candidate more than $250,000 using money raised after Election Day.

The senator argued that makes candidates think twice about lending money because it substantially increases the risk that any candidate’s loan will never be fully repaid.

Cruz lent his campaign $260,000 the day before the 2018 general election to challenge the law.

According to Federal Election Commission findings, in the five election cycles before 2020, candidates for Senate made 588 loans to their campaigns, about 80% of them under $250,000. Candidates for the House of Representatives made 3,444 loans, nearly 90% under $250,000.