U.S. Supreme Court to Revisit Campaign Finance

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to again take up campaign finance by reconsidering caps on individual donations, three years after controversially removing limits for unions and corporations.

The 2010 Citizens United ruling -- which allowed unlimited donations by such entities based on the constitutional right to free speech, could inform the upcoming ruling on aggregate individual contributions.

The Supreme Court will take up a case filed by Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon and the Republican Party against the Federal Election Commission, which imposes a two-year aggregate cap on individual donations.

An appeals court dismissed their argument that the cap hampers free speech, enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

If the Supreme Court rejects the judgment of the lower court, it could modify its own decision in the landmark 1976 case Buckley v. Valeo, which upheld limits on campaign donations and requirements on their disclosure.

Critics had slammed the narrow 5-4 Citizens United ruling, saying it would open the floodgates to allow wealthy donors to dominate American politics.

The 2012 election -- the most expensive in history, with an estimated $6 billion price tag -- saw the rise of Super PACs, groups that used their ability to raise unlimited funds to unleash a flood of mostly negative ads.