Whether Alaska's $500 individual-to-candidate and individual-to-group contribution limits violate the First Amendment

QUESTION PRESENTED Alaska is a large and sparsely populated state whose unique geography poses distinct and expensive challenges for candidates for elected office. Yet Alaska has some of the lowest campaign contribution limits in the country: It allows individuals to contribute only $500 per year to any candidate for any office, or to any group other than a political party. Alaska Stat. §15.13.070(b)(1). Not only are those limits lower than those of all but three other states; they are significantly lower than any contribution limit this Court has ever upheld. In fact, adjusting for inflation (something Alaska law does not do), those limits are lower than the limits this Court struck down under the First Amendment in Randall v. Sorrell, 548 U.S. 230 (2006). In the decision below, a Ninth Circuit panel upheld those limits—but only because it considered that result “compelled by” circuit precedent that predates several of this Court’s most recent campaign finance decisions. The panel openly acknowledged that the Ninth Circuit's campaign finance jurisprudence is in tension with this Court’s decisions. Indeed, the panel suggested that Alaska’s limits might fail under the test applied by a plurality of this Court in Randall. But the panel viewed itself as bound to ignore the plurality’s guidance in favor of Ninth Circuit precedent that predated it. The question presented is: Whether Alaska’s $500 and individual-to-group contribution limits violate the First Amendment.