The issue focused on federal spending and debt. The legislation also banned financial regulation for political campaigns, including laws requiring disclosure of political contributions.

Even before the Supreme Court rulings in Citizens United v. FEC and McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, legal scholars had warned that federal law enforcement officials would find little prosecutorial muscle to monitor political speech if political parties could legally raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations and unions.

On Tuesday, Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissent saying that political speech rights were