Supreme Court to Settle Ted Cruz Fight With FEC Over Loan Reimbursement
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to referee a dispute between the Federal Election Commission and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over his bid to be fully reimbursed for a loan he made to his reelection campaign in 2018, one of five new cases the court added to its docket for its coming term.
Mr. Cruz, a Republican, lent his campaign $260,000 the day before the general election in which he narrowly defeated Democratic candidate Beto ORourke. But under federal campaign-finance limits, there is a $250,000 cap on a candidate being reimbursed for personal loans with money his campaign receives after the election.
The senator, seeking full reimbursement, challenged that limit on free-speech grounds, saying the cap burdened his right to speak freely in favor of his own election. The FEC argued the cap was a modest one that furthered the governments legitimate interest in preventing threats of corruption that could arise from donors making contributions after an election that effectively go directly into the pockets of the winning official.
A lower federal court agreed with Mr. Cruz, saying the reimbursement limit unlawfully burdened political speech protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court said it would review that decision.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/supreme-court-to-settle-ted-cruz-fight-with-fec-over-loan-reimbursement/ar-AAP0PqL