Politics: Freedom for the Pacs

One unintended consequence of the election reforms that emerged in the wake of the Watergate scandal was the proliferation of political action committees (PACs). In presidential general elections, the law decrees that independent PACs--ones that act on their own and are not authorized by a candidate--can spend only $1,000 touting their choice. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 last week that such limits are a violation of free speech. Justice William Rehnquist, writing for the majority, compared it to "allowing a speaker in a public hall to express his views while denying him the use of an amplifying system." Actually, the limit on independent expenditures has never been enforced, partly because two lower courts found it unconstitutional. As a result, the National Conservative Political Action Committee spent almost $10 million in 1984 on pro-Reagan activities, and other ostensibly independent groups spent nearly $5 1/2 million more. Walter Mondale, by contrast, had less than $1 million spent on his behalf by independent PACs. In his dissent, Justice Byron White argued that the independence of the ideological PACs is mainly a charade, a view shared by Democratic leaders and others.