The Supreme Court of the United States today issued a major decision — McComish et al v. Bennett, Secretary of State of Arizona, et al. — striking down Arizona’s public campaign finance law. The 5-4 decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, and joined by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito,  is likely to impact Wisconsin’s “Impartial Justice Act,” which contains similar campaign finance restrictions as the law struck down in Bennett.

The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Act created a public financing system for candidates for state office. Candidates who opted to participate in public financing system were granted a certain amount of public campaign funds. In addition, the candidate that accepted public financing was granted additional matching funds if a privately financed candidate exceeded the publicly financed candidate’s initial state allotment. This also applied to campaign funds spent by independent groups. Thus, if a private third party group spent campaign funds against the publicly financed candidate, or in favor of the privately financed candidate, the publicly financed candidate would receive a dollar-for-dollar match. The matching funds under Arizona’s law topped out at two times the initial grant of money to the publicly financed candidate.

The Supreme Court struck down Arizona’s law, ruling that the matching funds scheme “substantially burdens political speech and is not sufficiently justified by a compelling interest to survive First Amendment scrutiny.” The court specifically noted how the campaign finance law burdened independent groups. For example, an independent group can only avoid the matching funds going to the candidate they oppose by changing their message or choosing not to speak altogether.

Wisconsin’s Impartial Justice Act, which was signed into law in 2009, contained a similar public funding matching scheme as the Arizona law. A lawsuit was filed in federal court, but the court upheld the law. The 2011-13 budget bill recently signed into law defunded the law. Wisconsin’s law is all but dead now, with the Supreme Court’s decision finding Arizona’s law unconstitutional.

For more discussion about Wisconsin’s law, click here.