Even before the court's decision, national political campaigns had been growing increasingly expensive. It also strikes down part of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that banned unions and corporations from paying for political ads in the waning days of campaigns. The new ruling blurs the lines between corporate and individual contributions in political campaigns. 'We don't know its practical impact yet, and I don't think it's the last word from the court,' he said. 'It's the most major Supreme Court decision in the area of campaign finance in decades - and a significant First Amendment decision,' says Nathaniel Persily, a political scientist and law professor at Columbia University. Republicans and Democrats scrambled to untangle the full implications of the decision to overturn a 20-year-old Supreme Court ruling that barred corporations from spending freely to support or oppose candidates. Thursday's landmark decision, approved by a 5-4 margin, could unleash a torrent of corporate and union cash into the political realm and transform how campaigns for president and Congress are fought in the coming years. Supreme Court ruling issued just ahead of the pivotal 2010 midterm congressional election season. The decades-old system of rules that govern the financing of the nation's political campaigns was partially upended by a U.S.
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