ASSUMPTIONS/

ASSERTIONS

Trigger matched
public funding burdens
privately-financed
candidates and their
supporters, causing them
to reduce their speech.
- Justice Kennedy writing for the
majority, Arizona Free Enterprise,
564 U.S. 721, 741.

POST-DECISION RECORD
A comprehensive 2012 study by political scientists from Harvard, University of
Mississippi and Fordham University, applying multiple statistical tests to spending
levels under the trigger laws in both Maine and Arizona, found no evidence of a chilling
effect.
Data from Arizonas state legislative elections revealed no conclusive evidence that the
programs trigger provision reduced speech, or had an unequal effect on speech by
participating and nonparticipating candidates.