The Hill News

The Supreme Court ordered Montana to hold off enforcement of a state election law - upheld by the Montana Supreme Court - that forbids corporations from spending to help elect political candidates and puts the state at odds with the high court's controversial Citizens United ruling.

The hold could enable the court's liberal justices - who dissented on the 5-4 ruling that said the 1st Amendment protects corporate political spending - to bring the issue back to the court.

"Montana's experience, and experience elsewhere since Citizens United make it exceedingly difficult to maintain that independent expenditures by corporations 'do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,'" said Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer in a statement accompanying the order.

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