Originally passed in 1971, the Federal Election Campaign Act places restrictions regarding the amount of money that political parties can spend on behalf of certain candidates.

Yet in a move which left Democrats furious, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over the law's constitutionality.

Case arose in part from J.D. Vance's 2022 Ohio Senate race

According to Fox News, the case is known as National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission.

It was brought by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) on behalf of two GOP candidates who were running for office in 2022.

One of the contenders was J.D. Vance, who successfully ran for Senate in Ohio before being elected as vice president last year, while the other was Ohio Republican Rep. Steve Chabot.

The plaintiffs complain that the Federal Election Campaign Act's rules "severely restrict political party committees from doing what the First Amendment entitles them to do: fully associate with and advocate for their own candidates for federal office."

Justice Department joins with Republicans in challenging spending limits

Interestingly, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that it will join the NRSC and NRCC to strike down the relevant restrictions.

As Fox News pointed out, this put the DOJ in "in the somewhat unusual move of arguing against laws passed by Congress."

The network cited a DOJ statement which explained that this represents "the rare case that warrants an exception to that general approach" of supporting federal legislation.

Meanwhile, the Federal Election Campaign Act is being defended by the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Election law expert says Supreme Court's prior decision could be overturned

Rick Hasen is an election law expert at UCLA School of Law, and he told NBC News that the Supreme Court previously upheld spending limits for political parties in 2001.

NEW: Supreme Court takes up a new challenge to campaign finance restrictions in a case brought by Republicans seeking to overturn limits on party committees spending money in coordination with individual candidates. https://t.co/nox4gCZA31

— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 30, 2025

Yet he stressed that "[t]he court’s reasoning upholding these party spending limits has been undermined by more recent court campaign finance cases."

"The status quo — where outside groups like super PACs can raise unlimited sums but political parties face much more severe limitations — may create worse conditions in terms of empowering unaccountable groups and increasing negative ads," he added.