26 U.S.C. § 9035
Section 9035 · Qualified campaign expense limitations
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Carter/Mondale Presidential Committee, Inc. v. Federal Election Commission (1985)
Most recently applied in Jill Stein v. FEC (July 2023)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
No candidate shall knowingly incur qualified campaign expenses in excess of the expenditure limitation applicable under section 315(b)(1)(A) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, and no candidate shall knowingly make expenditures from his personal funds, or the personal funds of his immediate family, in connection with his campaign for nomination for election to the office of President in excess of, in the aggregate, $50,000.
For purposes of this section, the term “immediate family” means a candidate’s spouse, and any child, parent, grandparent, brother, half-brother, sister, or half-sister of the candidate, and the spouses of such persons.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
Section 315 of The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, referred to in subsec. (a), is classified to section 30116 of Title 52, Voting and Elections.
Amendments
2014—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 113–295 substituted “section 315(b)(1)(A)” for “section 320(b)(1)(A)”.
1976—Pub. L. 94–283 substituted “limitations” for “limitation” in section catchline, designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), inserted “Expenditure limitations” as heading of subsec. (a) as so redesignated and substituted “section 320(b)(1)(A) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, and no candidate shall knowingly make expenditures from his personal funds, or the personal funds of his immediate family, in connection with his campaign for nomination for election to the office of President in excess of, in the aggregate, $50,000” for “section 608(c)(1)(A) of title 18, United States Code”, and added subsec. (b).
Effective Date of 1976 Amendment
Pub. L. 94–283, title III, § 305(d), May 11, 1976, 90 Stat. 499, as amended by Pub. L. 99–514, § 2, Oct. 22, 1986, 100 Stat. 2095, provided that: “For purposes of applying section 9035(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [formerly I.R.C. 1954], as amended by subsection (a), expenditures made by an individual after January 29, 1976, and before the date of the enactment of this Act [May 11, 1976] shall not be taken into account.”