Welcome to a new era of campaign finance, one that will likely see an explosion in contributions to political candidates and causes.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court released a decision in McCutcheon v the Federal Elections Commission that will abolish the limits for how much individuals can contribute to candidates, political action committees and parties.

Existing rules capped how much an individual could give to various candidates and causes.

For example, in the 2014 election cycle an individual was only allowed to donate a total of $123,200.

But the high court found that cap was unconstitutional. Now that same single donor could theoretically give up to $3.5 million to multiple candidates and parties.

The ruling did not remove the individual limits that a person can give to a single candidate. That limit is $2,600 per candidate per election.

Check out this Mother Jones piece for a good explanation of the ruling and what it means.

Locally, Common Cause Hawaii has already spoken out against the Supreme Court’s decision, saying it will give the wealthiest donors even more access to politicians and open the door to impropriety.

“This decision lays out a welcome mat for corruption, here in Hawaii and across the country,” Common Cause Hawaii Executive Director Carmille Lim said in a press release.

“This opens the door for each member of our congressional delegation and every candidate for Congress to solicit multi-million dollar gifts from ultra-wealthy donors. Common sense tells us that folks who can give that kind of money are going to want something in return.”

Common Cause advocates for public financing of campaigns.

Photo: U.S. Supreme Court via Flickr courtesy of cometstarmoon.

—Nick Grube