January 30, 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo. To commemorate the anniversary, the Institute for Free Speech held a virtual panel with Bradley A. Smith, Joel Gora, and Eugene Volokh to reflect on the history of the case and its enduring legacy today. Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal moderated the discussion.
About the panel:
Brad Smith is the Founder & Chairman of the Institute for Free Speech and the Former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission. He is one of the nation’s foremost experts on campaign finance law and political speech.
Joel Gora is a Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and a former attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. While at the ACLU, Joel argued Buckley v. Valeo before the Supreme Court.
Eugene Volokh is a legal scholar who is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the co-founder of the popular legal blog the Volokh Conspiracy.
Kim Strassel is a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. She writes the All Things with Kim Strassel newsletter and hosts the associated podcast by the same name.
Watch the discussion below:
The Institute for Free Speech is publishing a series of essays on the Buckley v. Valeo decision, which will be cross-posted in partnership with the Volokh Conspiracy. Read the series:
- Buckley v. Valeo: A Retrospective Series, by David Keating
- The Buckley Principles, by Lee Goodman
- The Enduring Legacy of Buckley v. Valeo, by Floyd Abrams
- Buckley v. Valeo is Not What Ails American Democracy, by Ilya Somin
