Free Speech For People and Equal Citizens appeared before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court yesterday for oral arguments in two lawsuits on behalf of individual voters in the state challenging the Massachusetts Attorney General’s rejection of an initiative petition to limit contributions to super PACs (which are currently unlimited) to $5,000 per individual donor.

The following are excerpts from the Courthouse News Service:

The ballot question was scotched last year by state Attorney General Maura Healey, who is now the governor. Healey ruled that it violated free speech, noting that limits on PAC contributions have been struck down as unconstitutional by the Second, Seventh and D.C. Circuits. The Department of Justice declined to appeal the D.C. Circuit decision to the Supreme Court, and the Federal Election Commission ruled that any such limits are invalid.

But Massachusetts law says that a ballot question can go forward unless it’s “reasonably clear” that it’s unconstitutional, and the plaintiffs argue that the law is not “reasonably clear,” with no U.S. Supreme Court or Massachusetts precedent on the issue and the state’s citizens should get a chance to vote on it.

Ronald Fein of Free Speech for People, a group backing the initiative, told the justices that contribution limits are more important than expenditure limits in preventing bribery and corruption accusations of the sort that resulted in federal charges against New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez.

Free Speech For People’s legal briefing on this case was led by Senior Counsel Courtney Hostetler.

Read the full piece in the Courthouse News Service here.

Learn more about the proposed ballot measure to limit super PAC contributions here.