The Supreme Court on Monday returned a challenge to Alaska’s limits on campaign contributions to a lower court, suggesting that the limits were too low. The court also turned away appeals from defendants in a libel suit over climate change and from Adnan Syed, whose murder conviction was examined by the podcast “Serial.” And the justices refused to reconsider a ruling on how much authority Congress may delegate to the executive branch.

Contribution Limits

Alaska allows individuals to contribute no more than $500 to political candidates, one of the lowest limits in the nation. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, upheld the limits notwithstanding a 2006 Supreme Court decision, Randall v. Sorrell, that struck down Vermont’s $400 limit on contributions to candidates for statewide office.

The Sorrell decision was splintered, but Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s plurality opinion said contribution limits could be so low that they “harm the electoral process by preventing challengers from mounting effective campaigns against incumbent officeholders, thereby reducing democratic accountability.”

In an unsigned opinion with no noted dissents, the Supreme Court sent the Alaska case back to the Ninth Circuit, instructing it to “revisit whether Alaska’s contribution limits are consistent with our First Amendment precedents.”