Brad Smith, former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) blogs:

This morning the Supreme Court summarily affirmed the decision of a 3 judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Blumen v. Federal Election Commission, upholding the power of government to bar political contributions to parties, PACs, and candidates from non-resident aliens. The decision was no surprise here or elsewhere.

…Professor Hasen claims that the decision is contrary to the logic of the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, citing to language in that decision that suggests that the identity of the speaker doesn’t matter. The result, he claims, is “doctrinal incoherence.” But this is only because he insists on reading Citizens United on his terms, rather than the Court’s terms.

There is substantial precedent for holding that non-resident aliens lack all the rights of U.S. citizens. Simply put, Citizens United stands for the proposition that the identity of U.S. citizens and permanent resident speakers was irrelevant to their speech rights. The decision, on its own terms, specifically said that it was not considering the law prohibiting contributions and expenditures by non-resident aliens.

Full story at the link.