The state will not seek further legal review of a recent court decision that struck down several campaign contribution caps in Alaska, including a $500-a-year limit on what an individual can give a candidate, Department of Law spokesperson Grace Lee said Tuesday.
The appeals court panel ruling in the case indicated Alaska’s $500 campaign contribution limit “would not be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court for multiple reasons, including reasons beyond dispute, such as the lack of an inflation adjustment” in state law, Lee said in an email.
“The resources and risks to pursue a rehearing of the Ninth Circuit en banc, or a further appeal, are too great,” she wrote. “We encourage the legislature to address this issue and determine what limits would be appropriate based on current constitutional precedent.”
Other limits also were struck down by the appeals court panel in the divided opinion issued in late July.
Democratic state senators wrote Gov. Mike Dunleavy earlier this month to ask that he direct Attorney General Treg Taylor to seek a review of the ruling by a larger panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They called the dissenting opinion in the case “factually and legally sound.”