Campaign Finance and Obscenity Quizlet

This 1886 SCOTUS ruling established that corporations are protected under the 14th Amendment.

Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad

Name given to the legal concept holding that corporations are treated as people under the 14th Amendment.

Corporate personhood

This 1976 SCOTUS ruling held that a candidate can spend unlimited personal funds because candidate spending is treated as speech.

Buckley v. Valeo

Under Buckley v. Valeo , campaign spending is protected under which constitutional amendment?

First Amendment

What is the current maximum individual contribution limit per federal election ($3,500 primary and $3,500 general)?

$7,000 total per election cycle

What is the common alternate name for the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002?

McCain-Feingold Act

What type of political party donations were completely prohibited by the BCRA?

Soft money

What type of political donations had their limits raised and indexed for inflation under the BCRA?

Hard money

The BCRA prohibited corporations and unions from funding which specific type of public communications?

Issue ads and electioneering communications

This SCOTUS challenge brought by a Senate leader attempted to invalidate the BCRA's limits on PACs.

McConnell v. FEC

This corporate entity challenged federal limits on the grounds that restricting the money it could collect and stockpile was unconstitutional.

SpeechNow.org

This landmark 2010 SCOTUS ruling held that corporations have free-rein independent spending rights, opening the floodgates for Super PACs.

Citizens United v. FEC

What is the formal legal term for a Super PAC?

Independent expenditure-only committee

What is the single critical rule that Super PACs must follow regarding candidate campaigns?

Cannot coordinate with the campaign

What is the maximum monetary contribution a traditional Political Action Committee (PAC) can make directly to a candidate?

$5,000

This 2014 SCOTUS ruling established that there is no aggregate limit on the total amount an individual can give across multiple candidates during an election cycle.

McCutcheon v. FEC

What is the term for attempting to convince citizens to vote in a specific manner?

Electioneering

How does the Supreme Court generally define obscenity?

Things that are foul and disgusting

Any language, video, or imagery that has the capacity to cause prurience is defined as what?

Pornography

Name given to an unnatural or unhealthy (morbid) curiosity regarding sexual desires.

Prurience

What psychological effect does prurience exert on an individual?

Causes a person to lose perspective on sexuality

Complete the constitutional principle: "Not all obscenity is pornographic, but…"

All pornography is obscene

Which Supreme Court Justice famously stated, "To hell with all the tests; I know porn when I see it"?

Justice Potter Stewart

This 1940 decision served as the first modern Supreme Court case evaluating a literary work for pornography and obscenity.

U.S. v. A Book Called Ulysses

What was the SCOTUS holding in U.S. v. A Book Called Ulysses ?

The book was not obscene or pornographic

This 1942 SCOTUS case held that lewdness and obscenity are unprotected because such expressions do not express essential ideas.

Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire

Under the Chaplinsky standard, what ratio was required for speech to be constitutionally protected?

Good had to outweigh the bad

This 1957 ruling declared obscenity unprotected because it is "utterly without redeeming social value."

Roth v. United States

Under the Roth test, whose standards are applied to determine if the dominant theme appeals to prurient interest?

The average person applying contemporary community standards

This 1973 ruling established the current three-part test used by courts to evaluate obscenity.

Miller v. California

Under the third prong of the Miller test, a work is obscene if, taken as a whole, it lacks serious value in which four areas?

Literary, artistic, political, or scientific value