Supreme Court asked to overturn law that allows unions to contribute to campaigns but block contributions by corporations

Washington Free Beacon:

A lawsuit is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a Massachusetts rule that prohibits companies from campaign contributions while exempting unions from similar restrictions.

The pro-free market Goldwater Institute and Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance petitioned the high court to review the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's unanimous ruling approving campaign finance restrictions placed on for-profit businesses. The state court ruled in 1A Auto, Inc. and 126 Self Storage, Inc. v. Sullivan that the law did not infringe on the First Amendment rights of employers by preventing them from making contributions directly or indirectly on behalf of state or local candidates. While acknowledging that the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a federal ban on independent expenditures inn Citizens United, the Massachusetts justices said it did not overturn the 2003 Beaumont decision affirming limits on corporate contributions.

"The Court reaffirmed the key distinction between contributions and independent expenditures, emphasizing that contributions present a special risk of quid pro quo corruption because, unlike independent expenditures, they are coordinated with candidates," the September ruling says. "Experience confirms that, if corporate contributions were allowed, there would be a serious threat of quid pro quo corruption."

The plaintiffs urge the Supreme Court to overturn the state court's decision in light of Citizens United and other federal court rulings since 2003. The filing says the nation's highest court needs to clarify the First Amendment protections granted to for-profit entities and overturn the Beaumont decision. The Massachusetts ban on corporate contributions directly to candidates, as well as the ban on third party spending through political action committees, violates the same free speech and association rights as the prohibition of independent expenditures in the Citizens United case, according to the suit.

"The Court has spoken clearly on these principles, lower courts nonetheless lack clarity on how they should analyze challenges to certain types of campaign-finance restrictions that the Court’s recent decisions have not directly addressed," the petition says. "Although this Court has condemned laws that favor some political speakers over others, the lower courts still give discriminatory contribution limits minimal scrutiny for lack of specific guidance from this Court."
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The court has been cutting back on the political power of unions to use dues for purposes its members have not agreed to.  It is not clear how they would rule on corporate contributions.