
Documents from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show that over the summer, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas received a payment of $555,000 from his campaign. Reporter Bryan Metzger, in an article published by Business Insider on October 18, explains why Cruz "has the U.S. Supreme Court to thank for it."
Cruz, Metzger notes, challenged part of a 2002 law that "set a $250,000 limit on the amount of money that candidates could raise after the election for the purpose of paying off personal loans to their campaign committee." The case, Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court — and the Court, in a 6-3 ruling, agreed with Cruz. Chief Justice John Roberts used some Citizens United-influenced language in the ruling, writing that Section 304 of the 2002 law "inhibits candidates from loaning money to their campaigns in the first place, burdening core speech."