Essay On Liberty Pac Vs Madigan

Although this law was created to establish campaign reform, many people have sued the State of Illinois on the premise that this new law violates their constitutional rights. One of the leading cases in this matter is Liberty Pac. v. Madigan. In this case, the plaintiffs Illinois Liberty Pac, Edgar Bachrach and Illinois State Senator Kyle McCarter, believed that this new law violated their rights under the First, Second and Fourteenth amendment. This case was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, and the plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary injunction asserting that the law is unconstitutional. Illinois Liberty PAC., and Edgar Bachrach in their motion for preliminary injunction argued that this law violated there first amendment rights, because they were unable to contribute more then the Act allowed. Therefore they argued …show more content…
They felt this way was because of the ruling in Buckley (Cite). In Buckley, the court ruled that limits on how much one can contribute to a campaign are allowed, in order to prevent corruption. In addition, they also argued that Illinois laws are more accommodating then most states, because a majority of states only allow one thousand dollar contributions to a campaign. Amici Curiae Brief in support of defendant at 1, Liberty Pac., v. Madison, No. 1:12-cv-05811 (Dis. Aug. 30, 2013). Furthermore, they argued that in Amici (Brief), the court concluded that contribution limits are constitutional, so long as they do not prevent candidates from collecting the recourses necessary for effective advocacy. Therefore, since these contribution limits would allow candidates to perform effective advocacy, and it would prevent corruption, the defendants argued that this law is constitutional. Amici Curiae Brief in support of defendant at 6, Liberty Pac., v. Madison, No. 1:12-cv-05811 (Dis. Aug. 30,