How did the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act affect aggregate contribution limits before McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission?

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 significantly impacted campaign finance by increasing the limits on "hard money" contributions and adjusting the aggregate limits on the total amount an individual could contribute to multiple candidates and party committees during an election cycle.1

Prior to the Supreme Court's ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (2014), the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), as amended by the BCRA, imposed specific aggregate limits on individuals. For the 2011–2012 election cycle, these limits restricted an individual to a total of $46,200 in contributions to all candidates and $70,800 to all party committees and noncandidate political action committees (PACs).23

These aggregate limits were designed to prevent the circumvention of "base limits"—the caps on contributions to individual candidates or committees. However, in 2014, the Supreme Court struck down these aggregate limits, ruling that they violated the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and association, while leaving the individual base limits intact.23