The Constitutional Implications of Expenditure Limits in Student Government Elections.

The purpose of this paper is to provide student affairs professionals with an overview of the law regarding the constitutionality of expenditure limits in student government elections. Unlike campaigns for federal and state office, it is clear that the limited case law on this topic does allow universities to limit the amount of money that student government candidates may spend on their campaigns. However, one of the reasons that universities sometimes set these restrictions is an attempt to create a level playing field for all candidates. This paper notes that this effort may be counter-productive by having the effect of assisting the establishment candidate, and thus urges university administrators to consider this possibility before imposing expenditure limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]