Wealthy donors will be able to give more money to Minnesota candidates this year after a federal judge on Monday ordered a temporary halt to enforcement of the state's long-standing limit on certain political donations.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank draws heavily on recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions that have opened a flood of money into politics. Frank, with some clear personal hesitation, said he had no choice but to temporarily block enforcement of the Minnesota limit.
"Although the undersigned may not agree with the (U.S.) Supreme Court's recent line of cases on the subject of campaign finance and their effect on the integrity of public governmental institutions, the Court acknowledges that it is nevertheless bound by the decisions of the Supreme Court," Frank wrote.
The decision is only a preliminary injunction, while the case wends its way through the courts. But its results are immediate.
Minnesota's 20-year-old law was designed to limit the influence of big donors, lobbyists, political parties and political action committees, restricting the total amounts candidates could accept from those four special sources. Once candidates had gotten 20 percent of campaign donations from those sources, they could accept only half as much money from future individual big donors and no money at all from political parties, PACs or lobbyists.
Frank's decision lifts the limit on individual donors only. The limit on political fund, PAC and lobbyist giving remains intact.
Opponents of restrictions on campaign finance predicted the ruling would be the first of many.
"There is a wide variety of campaign finance laws at the state level, many of which pose exactly the same constitutional problems as the federal campaign finance laws. I think we are going to see a lot of litigation trying to clear up the constitutionality of those laws and to get them off the books," said Paul Sherman, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice in Virginia. The Institute brought the Minnesota lawsuit on behalf of two donors, a candidate and Republican state Rep. Linda Runbeck.