WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will hear a challenge to Arizona’s public funding of state campaigns, setting the stage for a ruling that could doom efforts to limit the impact of private money in elections.
The court’s decision next year will be the latest of a series of rulings on campaign-funding law. The conservative majority has struck down both state and federal laws while saying that free speech calls for free spending in politics.
Arizona’s voters adopted the Clean Elections Act in 1998. Candidates who opt for the public funding are entitled to extra matching funds if they are being outspent by their privately funded opponents.
The lawyers challenging the Arizona law said Maine and Connecticut had also adopted public-funding laws for state candidates. They cited six other states — Florida, Hawaii, New Mexico, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin — that offer public funding for some state offices.
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