Under Mccain-Feingold, corporations and unions were not allowed to fund any “electioneering communications” from their general funds during a time period (60 days for the general, and 30 for the primary) prior to election day. “Electioneering communications” were essentially defined as communications that identified a candidate by name.
Under the Citizen’s United decision, the court ruled that the law, as applied to “independent expenditure” campaigns made by corporations or unions, was an unconstitutional abridgement of the First Amendment, since there was no compelling government interest in limiting IE spending, since they (as defined) should not lead to explicit quid pro quo corruption.
