There will be no limits to donations for Colorado Super PACS after this recent court ruling

Thanks to Election Law Blog for the link in his post “Colorado Appeals Court Says Political Party Can Create Super PAC with Unlimited Funding” to the Colorado Republican Party v. Colorado Ethics Watch decision by the City and County of Denver District Court:

“The First Amendment ‘“has its fullest and most urgent application” to speech uttered during a campaign for political office.’” Citizens United v. Fed. Election Comm’n, 558 U.S. 310, 339 (2010) (citation omitted).

We are asked in this appeal to determine whether an independent expenditure committee established by a political party is subject to source and amount contribution limits under Colorado Constitution article XXVIII (the Campaign and Political Finance Amendment) and sections 1-45-101 to -118, C.R.S. 2015 (the Fair Campaign Practices Act).

Intervenor, Colorado Ethics Watch (Ethics Watch), appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of plaintiff, the Colorado Republican Party (the Party), concluding the Party could establish an independent expenditure committee which was not subject to the source and contribution limits that restrict political parties under article XXVIII, section 3(3). We affirm.

The conclusion:

To summarize, under section 1-45-103(11.5) an independent expenditure committee is “one or more persons that make an independent expenditure in an aggregate amount in excess of one thousand dollars or that collect in excess of one thousand dollars from one or more persons for the purpose of making an independent expenditure.” A political party is a “person” under article XXVIII. Colo. Const. art. XXVIII, § 2(11); § 1-45-103(13).

Neither the Campaign and Political Finance Amendment nor the Fair Campaign Practices Act establishes source or amount limits on contributions to independent expenditure committees. And so long as the expenditure is independent — “not controlled by or coordinated with any candidate or agent of such candidate” — its source will not be subject to any contribution limits. Colo. Const. art. XXVIII, § 2(9); § 1-45-103(11); Campaign & Political Finance