Unpacked Content
Knowledge
Students know:
- How special interest groups impact state and national elections through various means, such as endorsements and political advertising.
- Key Supreme Court decisions and laws that frame the current campaign spending and finance practices.
Skills
Students are able to:
- Analyze an excerpt of a Supreme Court decision and identify their constitutional reasoning in reaching their decision.
- Analyze table or chart of contributions or expenditures to demonstrate how money is distributed amongst candidates, their outcome on the election process, or trends over time.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- The historical issue of campaign spending and finance, as well as Supreme Court decisions and Federal law, shape the current practices of special interest groups in their efforts to impact state and national elections.
Vocabulary
- political action committee (PAC)
- Buckley v. Valeo
- Citizens United v. Federal Election
- Commission (italicize)
- Federal Election Commission
- contribution limit
- hard money
- soft money
- Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971
- public financing
- special interest group
