Tillman Act 1907

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</div><div><div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content mw-content-ltr" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr;"><div class="mw-parser-output" style=""> Tillman Act of 1907 (34 Stat. 864) was the first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_finance_reform_in_the_United_States" title="Campaign finance reform in the United States" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">campaign finance law</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">United States</a>. The Act prohibited monetary contributions to federal candidates by corporations and nationally chartered (interstate) banks.The Act was signed into law by President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt" title="Theodore Roosevelt" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Theodore Roosevelt</a> on January 26, 1907, and was named for its sponsor, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina" title="South Carolina" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">South Carolina</a> Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Tillman" class="mw-redirect" title="Ben Tillman" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Ben Tillman</a>.<div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); padding: 7px; display: table;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="margin: 0px; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; direction: ltr;">
</div><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#Background" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1Background</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#Contents" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Contents</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#Impact" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3Impact</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#Further_reading" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6Further reading</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">Background[</h2>In 1905, a New York state investigation into ties between the major insurance companies and Wall Street banks accidentally discovered evidence that the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Life_Insurance_Company" title="New York Life Insurance Company" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">New York Life Insurance Company</a> had made a $48,700 ($1.47 million in modern dollars<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_note-inflation-US-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[1]</a>) contribution to Theodore Roosevelt's 1904 presidential campaign. This discovery was followed by daily revelations about other corporate contributions. The presidents of all the big insurance firms, and many of the smaller ones, testified that they had made corporate contributions to the Republican presidential campaigns of 1896, 1900, and 1904. "[I]t is obvious," the New York Times said, "that a deterrent, an actual prohibition, is needed to shut off the corrupting stream that flows from corporation treasuries."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a>The Times and the New York Daily Tribune both called on Congress to reintroduce a bill to prohibit corporate contributions that former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire" title="New Hampshire" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">New Hampshire</a> Republican Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E.Chandler" title="William E. Chandler" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">William E. Chandler</a> had drafted in 1901.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a> With the investigation and the media focusing attention on his 1901 bill, Chandler tried to get one of his fellow Republicans to reintroduce it in the upcoming Fifty-Ninth Congress. When none of them agreed to do so, he turned to his old friend Tillman. who introduced the bill in the Senate. President Roosevelt joined the growing support for such a prohibition in his December 1905 message to Congress: ""All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> Tillman got the Senate to pass the bill, without debate, in 1906, and the House passed it, also without debate, in 1907.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a><div class="thumb tright" style="background-color: transparent; clear: right; float: right; width: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; padding: 3px; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); width: 172px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamintillman.jpg" class="image" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Benjamintillman.jpg/170px-Benjamintillman.jpg" decoding="async" width="170" height="252" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Benjamintillman.jpg/255px-Benjamintillman.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Benjamintillman.jpg/340px-Benjamintillman.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2462" data-file-height="3651" style="border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></a><div class="thumbcaption" style="text-align: left; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; border: 0px;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamintillman.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamintillman.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none"></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States Senator</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Tillman" title="Benjamin Tillman" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Benjamin Tillman</a>.</div></div></div><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">Contents[</h2>Chandler’s original bill had two provisions; the first would have prohibited any corporation engaged in interstate commerce from contributing to election campaigns at any level, national, state, or local; the second would have prohibited any corporation from contributing to presidential and congressional elections. (At the time that would have covered only elections to the House of Representatives; U.S. senators were not popularly elected until the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913.) The bill that Congress passed in 1907 was more narrow in scope.The Senate struck out the first provision, which rested on Congress’s broad authority to regulate interstate commerce. The Senate instead prohibited corporate contributions based on Congress’s authority to regulate elections to the House of Representatives. The final bill prohibited national banks and federally chartered corporations from contributing to election campaigns at any level, national, state, or local, and prohibited “any corporation whatever” from making contributions in elections for president and the House of Representatives.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">Impact</h2>Most states soon passed their own laws banning corporate campaign contributions.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a> The state laws were first tested with the rise of the Prohibition movement, when state governments sued breweries that had used corporate funds against ballot measures to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages. The first case brought under the Tillman Act, United States v. United States Brewers’ Association, 239 F. 163 (1916) <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://cite.case.law/f/239/163/" style="background-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" link-external-small-ltr-progressive.svg="link-external-small-ltr-progressive.svg" cd31="cd31" background-position="background-position" right="right" center="center" background-size="background-size" em="em" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" initial="initial" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" padding-right="padding-right">[2]</a>, was also a Prohibition case, but it was about contributions to candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The breweries raised First Amendment objections to the state and federal laws, but the courts rejected them and upheld the laws.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">See also[</h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_finance" title="Campaign finance" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Campaign finance</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_finance_reform_in_the_United_States" title="Campaign finance reform in the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Campaign finance reform</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_v.American_Telephone%26_Telegraph_Co." title="Miller v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co." style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Miller v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.</a></li></ul><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">References[</h2><div class="reflist" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.5em; list-style-type: decimal;"><div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references" style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 3.2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-parent 0 mw-references 0 list-item 0; list-style-type: inherit;"><li id="cite_note-inflation-US-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1 mw-references 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_ref-inflation-US_1-0" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }1634–1699: <cite id="CITEREFMcCusker1997" class="citation book cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;">McCusker, J. J. (1997). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44525121.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" d="d" icon_pdf_file.png="Icon_pdf_file.png" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding="padding" px="px">How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda</a> (PDF). <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Antiquarian_Society" title="American Antiquarian Society" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">American Antiquarian Society</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=How+Much+Is+That+in+Real+Money%3F+A+Historical+Price+Index+for+Use+as+a+Deflator+of+Money+Values+in+the+Economy+of+the+United+States%3A+Addenda+et+Corrigenda&rft.pub=American+Antiquarian+Society&rft.date=1997&rft.aulast=McCusker&rft.aufirst=J.+J.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanantiquarian.org%2Fproceedings%2F44525121.pdf&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ATillman+Act+of+1907" class="Z3988"> 1700–1799: <cite id="CITEREFMcCusker1992" class="citation book cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;">McCusker, J. J. (1992). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44517778.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" d="d" icon_pdf_file.png="Icon_pdf_file.png" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding="padding" px="px">How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States</a> (PDF). <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Antiquarian_Society" title="American Antiquarian Society" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">American Antiquarian Society</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=How+Much+Is+That+in+Real+Money%3F+A+Historical+Price+Index+for+Use+as+a+Deflator+of+Money+Values+in+the+Economy+of+the+United+States&rft.pub=American+Antiquarian+Society&rft.date=1992&rft.aulast=McCusker&rft.aufirst=J.+J.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanantiquarian.org%2Fproceedings%2F44517778.pdf&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ATillman+Act+of+1907" class="Z3988"> 1800–present: <cite id="CITEREFFederal_Reserve_Bank_of_Minneapolis" class="citation web cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator/consumer-price-index-1800-" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" link-external-small-ltr-progressive.svg="link-external-small-ltr-progressive.svg" cd31="cd31" right="right" center="center" em="em" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right">"Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–"</a>. Retrieved April 16, 2022.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Consumer+Price+Index+%28estimate%29+1800%E2%80%93&rft.au=Federal+Reserve+Bank+of+Minneapolis&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.minneapolisfed.org%2Fabout-us%2Fmonetary-policy%2Finflation-calculator%2Fconsumer-price-index-1800-&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ATillman+Act+of+1907" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1 mw-references 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_ref-2" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }"The Campaign Fund Scandal," New York Times, Sept. 17, 1905, 8. On the 1905 investigation into the insurance companies, see Morton Keller, The Life Insurance Enterprise, 1885-1910: A Study in the Limits of Corporate Power (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), 245-64.</li><li id="cite_note-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1 mw-references 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_ref-3" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }“Campaigns with Corrupt Money,” New York Times, Sept. 22, 8; W. E. Chandler, “Campaign and Insurance Funds,” New York Daily Tribune, Sept. 22, 1905, 3</li><li id="cite_note-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1 mw-references 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_ref-4" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }<cite class="citation web cs1" style="font-style: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-5-1905-fifth-annual-message" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" link-external-small-ltr-progressive.svg="link-external-small-ltr-progressive.svg" cd31="cd31" right="right" center="center" em="em" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding-right="padding-right">"December 5, 1905: Fifth Annual Message"</a>. Miller Center. University of Virginia. 20 October 2016.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Miller+Center&rft.atitle=December+5%2C+1905%3A+Fifth+Annual+Message&rft.date=2016-10-20&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fmillercenter.org%2Fthe-presidency%2Fpresidential-speeches%2Fdecember-5-1905-fifth-annual-message&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ATillman+Act+of+1907" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1 mw-references 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_ref-5" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }On passage of the Tillman Act, see Robert E. Mutch, Campaigns, Congress, and Courts: The Making of Federal Campaign Finance Law (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988), 1-8, and Buying the Vote: A History of Campaign Finance Reform (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 45-57.</li><li id="cite_note-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1 mw-references 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_ref-6" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }34 Stat. 864, Chap. 420 <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/59th-congress/session-2/c59s2ch420.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" d="d" icon_pdf_file.png="Icon_pdf_file.png" right="right" center="center" no-repeat="no-repeat" padding="padding" px="px">[1]</a></li><li id="cite_note-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1 mw-references 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_ref-7" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Florida had already passed such laws, after the 1896 election: Missouri Laws, p. 108 (March 20, 1897); General Laws of Nebraska, ch. 19 (April 3, 1897); Acts of Tennessee, ch. 18 (April 29, 1897); Laws of Florida, ch. 4538 (June 2, 1897).</li><li id="cite_note-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; counter-increment: mw-ref-extends-parent 1 mw-references 1; counter-reset: mw-ref-extends-child 0;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907#cite_ref-8" aria-label="Jump up" title="Jump up" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">^{</a> }On these early cases, see Robert E. Mutch, “Before and After Bellotti: The Corporate Political Contributions Cases,” Election Law Journal, vol. 5 (2006), 295-301.</li></ol></div></div><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3;">Further reading[</h2><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Winkler, Adam, “Other People’s Money: Corporations, Agency Costs, and Campaign Finance Law,” Georgetown Law Journal, 92 (2004), 871-940</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Sitkoff, Robert H., “Corporate Political Speech, Political Extortion, and the Competition for Corporate Charters,” The University of Chicago Law Review, 69 (2002), 1103-66</li></ul></div></div><div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 5px; margin-top: 1em; clear: both;"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Categories</a>: <ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em 0px 0.25em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1907_in_law" title="Category:1907 in law" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1907 in law</a></li><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); padding: 0px 0.5em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Campaign_finance_in_the_United_States" title="Category:Campaign finance in the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Campaign finance in the United States</a></li><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); padding: 0px 0.5em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:United_States_federal_election_legislation" title="Category:United States federal election legislation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States federal election legislation</a></li><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); padding: 0px 0.5em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Benjamin_Tillman" title="Category:Benjamin Tillman" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Benjamin Tillman</a></li></ul></div></div></div><div>
</div><div></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">the Tillman Act of 1907, the first federal effort to <a href="https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/990/regulation-of-political-campaigns" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; cursor: pointer;">regulate campaign finance</a> in U.S. elections, banned corporations from expending money from their treasuries to influence a federal election. Campaign contributions are now recognized as a form of speech partly protected by the First Amendment.<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Campaigns were unregulated before Tillman Act</h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Before passage of the Tillman Act, U.S. political campaigns were unregulated. But with the rise of industrialization in the nineteenth century and of corporations seeking to influence government policy, money and politics went hand-in-hand.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">During the 1904 presidential election, Democrat Alton B. Parker alleged that corporations gave incumbent Republican president Theodore Roosevelt large sums of money in exchange for influence on administration policies. Although Roosevelt denied the charge, investigations held after the election found that corporations did make huge contributions to the Republican campaign. In response, Roosevelt called on Congress to enact campaign finance reform in 1905, and the spotlight shifted to a bill introduced five years earlier by Republican senator William E. Chandler of New Hampshire.<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Original finance reform bill lacked support</h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Chandler’s bill had sought to prohibit federally chartered corporations and companies that engaged in interstate commerce from contributing to any campaign—federal, state, or local. His bill also sought to prohibit any contribution by corporations to congressional campaigns. Yet Chandler’s bill failed to garner any support until after he retired and Roosevelt issued the call for campaign finance reform.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">The bill eventually introduced was sponsored by Sen. Benjamin R. Tillman, a Democrat from South Carolina, who declared that Americans viewed their elected representatives as “instrumentalities and agents of corporations.” After revisions in the House, the bill banned campaign contributions by corporations and banks chartered by the federal government. It was signed into law in 1907.<h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Tillman Act remains in effect today</h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">The Tillman Act, which remains in effect today, includes a broadly defined concept of “contribution or expenditure”—a factor that, along with the act’s weak enforcement provisions at the time of its passage, allowed businesses and corporations to find loopholes in the law. For example, even though “any thing of value” was considered to be part of the definition of a “contribution or expenditure,” corporations continued to donate office space, typewriters, and free travel to members of Congress. In addition, company workers were often kept on the company payrolls while working exclusively for a congressional representative’s campaign.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Like the Tillman Act, recent Supreme Court decisions related to campaign regulations, such as <a href="https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/126/buckley-v-valeo" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; cursor: pointer;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Buckley v. Valeo (1976)</a> and <a href="https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/145/mcconnell-v-federal-election-commission" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; cursor: pointer;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003)</a>, allow greater control over contributions than over expenditures. And yet, efforts to reform campaign finance are stymied by attempts to evade and circumvent regulations.</div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div>Federal Corrupt Practices Act, also known as the Publicity Act, was a federal law of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States</a> that was enacted in 1910 and amended in 1911 and 1925. It remained the nation's primary law regulating campaign finance in federal elections until the passage of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Election_Campaign_Act" title="Federal Election Campaign Act" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Federal Election Campaign Act</a> in 1971. The Act was signed by President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft" title="William Howard Taft" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">William Howard Taft</a> on June 25, 1910.The Act built upon the prohibition on corporate contributions in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillman_Act_of_1907" title="Tillman Act of 1907" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tillman Act of 1907</a> and was codified at 2 U.S.C. Section 241.<div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="margin: 0px; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; direction: ltr;"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading" style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; display: inline;">Contents</h2><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox" style="cursor: pointer;" /></div><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Corrupt_Practices_Act#Provisions" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1Provisions</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Corrupt_Practices_Act#1911_Amendments" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">21911 Amendments</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Corrupt_Practices_Act#1925_Amendments" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">31925 Amendments</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Corrupt_Practices_Act#Repeal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4Repeal</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Corrupt_Practices_Act#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5References</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; font-family: " linux="Linux" libertine="Libertine" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Provisions[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Federal_Corrupt_Practices_Act&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Provisions" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h2>The Act established campaign spending limits for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party" title="Political party" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">political parties</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">House</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_election" title="General election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">general elections</a>. It was the first federal law to require public disclosure of spending by political parties, but not candidates, by requiring national committees of political parties to file post-election reports on their contributions to individual candidates and their own expenditures. However, it covered only multi-state political parties and election committees, carried few penalties, and was rarely enforced.<h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; font-family: " linux="Linux" libertine="Libertine" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">1911 Amendments[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Federal_Corrupt_Practices_Act&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: 1911 Amendments" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h2>On August 19, 1911, the Act was amended to extend it to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Senate</a> candidates and to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_elections" class="mw-redirect" title="Primary elections" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">primary elections</a>. The amendments also required financial disclosure by candidates for the first time and established limits on the amount of money that candidates were allowed to spend on their campaigns. House campaign expenditures were limited to $5,000 and Senate expenditures to $10,000, but states could set lower limits.However, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States" title="Supreme Court of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Supreme Court of the United States</a> ruled, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newberry_v.U.S." class="mw-redirect" title="Newberry v. U.S." style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Newberry v. U.S.</a> 256 U.S. 232 (1921), that Congress's authority to regulate elections did not extend to party primaries or nominations and so struck down the spending limits in the 1911 amendment.<h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; font-family: " linux="Linux" libertine="Libertine" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">1925 Amendments[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Federal_Corrupt_Practices_Act&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: 1925 Amendments" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h2>On February 28, 1925, the Act was revised and strengthened to extend its coverage to multi-state parties and election committees and to require financial disclosure reports to be made quarterly. Any contribution over $100 now had to be reported, and the Senate campaign spending limit was raised to $25,000.However, the stronger version failed to provide for adequate regulation of campaign finance. The law provided for no regulatory authority to establish the manner of reporting or its disclosure to the public, and it set no penalties for failure to comply. The law did not regulate total contributions, which encouraged parties and donors to set up multiple committees and make multiple donations, all under $100, to evade the law's limits. Enforcement was left up to Congress, which rarely acted.The US Supreme Court upheld the reporting requirements in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_v.United_States" title="Burroughs v. United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Burroughs v. United States</a> 290 U.S. 534 (1934).In 1941, the Supreme Court, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Classic" title="United States v. Classic" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States v. Classic</a>, 313 U.S. 299 (1941), upheld the spending limits in federal elections. It limited its ruling, however, by concluding that Congress's power to regulate extended only if state law made primaries and nominations part of the election and/or the primary effectively determined the outcome of the election.<h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; font-family: " linux="Linux" libertine="Libertine" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Repeal[</h2>The Act was repealed by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Election_Campaign_Act_of_1971" class="mw-redirect" title="Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971</a>, with effect on April 8, 1972.</div><div>=</div>