Why did Shaun McCutcheon challenge federal campaign-contribution limits?

Shaun McCutcheon challenged the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) aggregate limits because he believed they infringed upon his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association.12

McCutcheon argued that these limits were no longer justified by the government’s interest in preventing the "reality and appearance of corruption," a standard established in the 1976 case Buckley v. Valeo. He contended that subsequent amendments and regulations had already made it difficult, if not impossible, to circumvent individual "base limits" on contributions to single candidates. Consequently, he viewed the aggregate limits as an unnecessary restriction on his ability to support multiple candidates and party committees during election cycles.1

The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately agreed with this perspective in 2014, ruling that the aggregate limits violated constitutional protections for political expression.2