Supporters of a Maine law limiting contributions to political action committees that was struck down by a judge this summer have filed an appeal hoping it will reverse the order and lead to broader campaign finance reform.

Maine voters last November approved a referendum putting a $5,000 limit on contributions to so-called super PACs that make independent expenditures. The referendum was approved with nearly 75% of the vote, but was promptly challenged in court by two conservative Maine PACs. A U.S. District Court judge ruled in July that the new limits violate the First Amendment, thus preventing the law from being enforced.

The Office of the Maine Attorney General on Wednesday filed an appeal of the July decision, arguing in a brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston that the District Court misapplied the landmark Citizens United case on campaign finance and free speech that was decided by the Supreme Court in 2010.

“The district court overread Citizens United — a decision applying strict scrutiny to strike down a categorical ban on speech — as forbidding any limits on mere monetary donations to organizations engaged in such speech,” the appeal says.

“It did so despite the more relaxed level of First Amendment scrutiny applicable to contribution limits under binding Supreme Court precedent as well as the greater risk of quid pro quo corruption and its appearance in allowing unlimited contributions to super PACs.”

Supporters of the referendum also have filed arguments with the court seeking to overturn the Maine ruling. They said this week they hope a decision in their favor could lead to broader campaign finance reform, and more specifically that it would allow the Supreme Court to overturn an erroneous 2010 decision from a Washington, D.C. appeals court that declared all limits on super PAC contributions to be unconstitutional.

Super PACs are a type of political action committee that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money but are limited to making independent expenditures that are not coordinated directly with candidates.

“I’m expecting we’ll find a way to uphold Maine’s initiative, and when we uphold Maine’s initiative, a special bonus prize is that the opinion that does that would revive the federal law so that by 2028 we could (limit) not just super PACs in Maine, but super PACs nationally,” said Larry Lessig, a prominent legal scholar and the founder of Equal Citizens, a nonprofit dedicated to election reform that is advocating for the appeal.

The 2024 Maine referendum was brought forward by a group of campaign finance reform activists including Lessig, who was also a long-shot Democratic presidential candidate in 2016. Lessig said at the time that he and others chose Maine as a test case for limiting super PAC contributions because of a poll that showed an overwhelming majority of residents here supporting the limits.

Sen. Rick Bennett, I-Oxford, who is running for Maine governor and is also involved in supporters’ efforts to appeal the Maine ruling, said during a virtual news conference this week that the outcome of the referendum showed that Maine voters want to see more controls in place over money in politics, and he is hoping that the appeal will have that effect.

“This is a consensus issue across this country: that money in politics is interfering with solving the rest of the issues that Maine voters and voters across the country know need to be addressed, from housing to child care to energy costs,” Bennett said.

The limits were approved by more than 600,000 Maine voters, a record number for a citizens’ initiative. Two conservative Maine PACs, Dinner Table Action and For Our Future, and their principal officer, Alex Titcomb, then filed a lawsuit challenging the restrictions.

“Courts across the country have considered this issue and appellate judges have unanimously agreed that donations for independent expenditures can not be limited,” said Charles Miller, an attorney for the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Free Speech who is representing Titcomb and the Maine PACs. “We don’t see anything in the briefs filed in the First Circuit that will change that.”

Supporters of the limits say they expect the appeals court to hold oral arguments and issue a ruling in early 2026.

While Maine law currently limits contributions to candidates, the only contribution limit on PACs is the referendum measure that is not being enforced. For a general election, individuals or business entities can contribute a maximum of $2,075 to a gubernatorial candidate and $500 to a legislative candidate.