Meet The Lawyer Who Helped An Alabama Engineer Win A Historic Supreme Court Case

It was an unlikely meeting, one that came through multiple layers of mutual friends.

Dan Backer, an attorney who won his biggest case before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, met Alabama engineer Shaun McCutcheon, his lead plaintiff, three years ago at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. They met at "Reaganpalooza," the annual conference wrap-up party — one of Backer's friends had been dating one of McCutcheon's friends.

That meeting was the start of a partnership that would produce another landmark campaign-finance ruling at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. In the most consequential decision involving money in politics since the 2010 Citizens United case, the high court threw out overall limits on campaign donations over a two-year election cycle.

Critics denounced the decision as one that would open the floodgates for the wealthy to have even more influence over politics. But supporters said it would lead to more transparency with donations, transferring power back to candidates and party committees who are required to disclose more information than the so-called "super" political action committees (PACs) that can currently get unlimited donations.

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