McCutcheon v. FEC

5-4

Prologue Projects

News Commentary, News, Government

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Presidential candidates raised more than $1.6 billion in the 2024 election cycle, but if you think flooding politics with money is bad then you don’t understand FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Thanks to this Supreme Court decision, that pesky problem of an individual donor not being able to give more than $117,000 to political campaigns because of stupid campaign finance laws has now been solved.

If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To hear this and other Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support.

5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects. This episode was produced by Dustin DeSoto. Leon Neyfakh provides editorial support. Our researcher is Jonathan DeBruin, and our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.

Follow the show at @fivefourpod on most platforms. On BlueSky, find Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social, Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social, and Rhiannon @aywarhiannon.bsky.social.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We'll hear argument first this morning in case 12-536, McCutcheon versus the Federal Election Commission.
0:09.8	Hey, everyone. This is Leon from Prologue Projects. On this episode of 5 to 4, Peter, Riannon, and Michael are talking about McCutcheon v. FEC, a case from 2014 about money and politics.
0:23.6	A few years after Citizens United allowed billions of dollars to be pumped into politics
0:28.2	in the name of free speech for corporations, conservatives once again challenged spending limits,
0:33.8	this time for individual donors.
0:36.0	Like Citizens United, the name of this case could be associated with the rise of money in politics for decades.
0:42.7	At the time, the FEC had a cap on how much money a single individual could donate in a given election cycle.
0:49.2	Sean McCutcheon had been donating to multiple Republican candidates, the Republican National Committee, and other Republican committees, when he found out he had reached his spending limit.
0:58.3	So he sued the FEC, claiming the limit violated his free speech rights.
1:02.5	I wanted to spend more money on more candidates, committees, and PACs, and parties.
1:08.9	It's about freedom of speech, and the government does not need to limit any Americans
1:14.4	regardless of economic status.
1:16.7	In a five to four decision,
1:18.2	the Supreme Court ruled in McCutcheon's favor.
1:21.2	This is five to four,
1:22.7	a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.
1:31.9	Thank you. about how much the Supreme Court sucks. Welcome to 5 to 4, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have our civil liberties falling from the sky, like airplanes during the Trump administration.
1:41.6	Yes.
1:42.2	I'm Peter. I'm here with Rihanna.
1:44.3	Hey. And Michael. Hi, everybody. I'm here with Riannon. Hey.
1:45.1	And Michael.
1:46.0	Hi, everybody.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Prologue Projects, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Prologue Projects and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.