The following is an excerpt from Trey Beck’s Substack, Brass Tactics. Read the full article here.

In collaborating on some of the same democracy projects, I’ve become friendly with Lawrence Lessig, one of the nation’s most eminent scholars of constitutional law and the founder of the democracy advocacy group Equal Citizens. Larry approached me earlier this year with what sounded like an absurd proposition: his group and its allies at Free Speech For People believe that a lawsuit percolating in Maine could finally corral out-of-control super PACs by restoring contribution limits that a lower court had wrongly stripped away. Success, he said, would undo the most damaging consequences of Citizens United and wipe away billions of future oligarchic political spending, all without overturning a single Supreme Court ruling.

Turns out it really might work.

Maine’s Ballot Question 1

Back in 2024, Maine voters approved Ballot Question 1, which capped at $5,000 what any entity or individual could contribute to a super PAC active in Maine elections. The measure got 75% of the vote, and more votes than any measure in state history, because Mainers wanted their elections not to be warped by outsized contributions by a few rich people.

Unfortunately, fans of the current crappy system sued, and Ballot Question 1 was struck down by a federal district court judge last year.

An elite legal team has been assembled by Equal Citizens, Free Speech For People, and colleagues to defend Maine’s law. They believe it’s an opportunity not just to restore Maine’s limit, but to fix a 16-year-long judicial misreading of Citizens United that has allowed a metastatic proliferation of super PACs nourished by unchecked money. If successful, a provision of the Federal Election Campaign Act currently lying dormant because of that misinterpretation would again limit individual and corporate contributions to super PACs at $5,000, with immediate effect. No new legislation or Trump signature required. Massive win for democracy.

Read the full article here.