--- title: Winners and Losers in Supreme Court's McCutcheon Decision description: The latest SCOTUS ruling on campaign-finance ruling may shift the ways money can flow to candidates, with consequences for several groups. canonical: https://time.com/49748/watch-the-winners-and-losers-from-the-mccutcheon-decision/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-04T14:39:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:08:33.379Z article:section: Politics og:title: Winners and Losers in Supreme Court's McCutcheon Decision og:description: The latest SCOTUS ruling on campaign-finance ruling may shift the ways money can flow to candidates, with consequences for several groups. og:url: https://time.com/49748/watch-the-winners-and-losers-from-the-mccutcheon-decision/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2bcb7938fe89f3f4/698688f0adae44d5775425a0/183645596.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3496 og:image:height: 1967 og:image:alt: Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Case Involving Donor Limits To Political Campaigns og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Winners and Losers in Supreme Court's McCutcheon Decision twitter:description: The latest SCOTUS ruling on campaign-finance ruling may shift the ways money can flow to candidates, with consequences for several groups. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2bcb7938fe89f3f4/698688f0adae44d5775425a0/183645596.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch: the Winners and Losers from the McCutcheon Decision > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Apr 4, 2014 2:39 PM UTC  The Supreme Court voted on McCutcheon v. Federal Election Committee, a first amendment case that will determine how much money an individual can contribute directly to political campaigns. The Supreme Court voted on McCutcheon v. Federal Election Committee, a first amendment case that will determine how much money an individual can contribute directly to political campaigns. Drew Angerer – Getty Images by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Apr 4, 2014 2:39 PM UTC In Tuesday’s landmark [Supreme Court decision](http://time.com/47576/supreme-court-campaign-contributions/) on the _McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission_ case, the justices lifted the limits on aggregate political contributions. The campaign finance ruling, which saw the Supreme Court sharply divided with a 5-4 vote, will likely transform the business of politics yet again, pushing even more money into elections. McCutcheon’s case has impressive implications, as [TIME’s Sam Frizell explains.](http://time.com/47236/shaun-mccutcheon-interview-supreme-court-campaign-finance/) A single donor can now theoretically spend up to $3.5 million supporting candidates for the House and Senate, a figure that doesn’t include contributions to political action committees. Watch TIME’s explanation of who benefits — and who doesn’t — from the ruling. ## ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/49748/watch-the-winners-and-losers-from-the-mccutcheon-decision/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/49748/watch-the-winners-and-losers-from-the-mccutcheon-decision/"},"headline":"Watch: the Winners and Losers from the McCutcheon Decision","datePublished":"2014-04-04T14:39:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:08:33.379Z","description":"The case Shaun McCutcheon - a chief executive and political financier - brought against the Federal Election Commission has ushered in a new era of political spending","url":"https://time.com/49748/watch-the-winners-and-losers-from-the-mccutcheon-decision/","keywords":["Supreme Court","Donations"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2bcb7938fe89f3f4/698688f0adae44d5775425a0/183645596.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2bcb7938fe89f3f4/698688f0adae44d5775425a0/183645596.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Case Involving Donor Limits To Political Campaigns","caption":"Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Case Involving Donor Limits To Political Campaigns","creditText":"Drew Angerer – Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/49748/watch-the-winners-and-losers-from-the-mccutcheon-decision/","name":"Watch: the Winners and Losers from the McCutcheon Decision"}}]}] ```