Conservative PAC loses US Supreme Court appeal

The conservative SpeechNow.org and groups like it can continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on elections, theoretically independent of candidates and parties, but they won’t be able to dodge laws that require disclosure.

According to today’s U.S. Supreme Court’s SCOTUS blog case roundup, SpeechNow v. FEC is a sequel to the controversial Citizens United case that declared corporations have the same rights as individuals.

The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a D.C. Circuit Court ruling that SpeechNow.org had to register as a political action committee and thus has “significant obligations to disclose their activities and fund sources.”

There is no spending limit, a fact that encouraged outside groups to spend more than a quarter-billion dollars in 2010, buying many of the political ads that seem to run nonstop on local television and radio stations.