Super PACs: All the speech money can buy

What are Super PACs?
Super PACs are a new, supercharged breed of political action committees — organizations that raise and spend money to elect and defeat candidates. While PACs have been around for decades, Super PACs came into existence only recently, as the result of a landmark Supreme Court case in 2010, Citizens United. In that bitterly contested, 5–4 ruling, the court struck down part of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law, saying it infringed on the First Amendment rights of "independent" organizations, corporations, and unions to express opinions about elections. In fact, a federal appeals court ruled that year, these entities can spend unlimited amounts of money on political speech.