Francis R. Valeo
Encyclopedia
Francis Ralph Valeo was the Secretary of the United States Senate
and ex officio member of the Federal Election Commission
. He was the defendant/appellee for the Federal government of the United States
in Buckley v. Valeo
, 424 U.S. 1
(1976), in which the Supreme Court of the United States
upheld federal limits on campaign contributions.
Francis Valeo was the son of a shoe factory foreman. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was a 1936 political science graduate of New York University
, where he also received a master's degree in international relations in 1942. He served in China during World War II.
After the war, he was a foreign policy specialist for the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress, and was loaned to the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He traveled repeatedly to Southeast Asia with Montana Senator Mike Mansfield. In 1963, after the Bobby Baker scandal shook the Senate, Mansfield appointed Valeo to replace Baker as Majority Secretary, a position he held during the long filibuster over the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1965 he was elected Secretary of the Senate.
Valeo's books include The Japanese Diet and the U.S. Congress (1983); and Mike Mansfield, Majority Leader: A Different Kind of Senate, 1961-1976 (1999).
Secretary of the United States Senate
The Secretary of the Senate is an elected officer of the United States Senate. The Secretary supervises an extensive array of offices and services to expedite the day-to-day operations of that body...
and ex officio member of the Federal Election Commission
Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act...
. He was the defendant/appellee for the Federal government of the United States
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
in Buckley v. Valeo
Buckley v. Valeo
Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 , was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a federal law which set limits on campaign contributions, but ruled that spending money to influence elections is a form of constitutionally protected free speech, and struck down portions of the law...
, 424 U.S. 1
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1976), in which the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
upheld federal limits on campaign contributions.
Francis Valeo was the son of a shoe factory foreman. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was a 1936 political science graduate of New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, where he also received a master's degree in international relations in 1942. He served in China during World War II.
After the war, he was a foreign policy specialist for the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress, and was loaned to the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He traveled repeatedly to Southeast Asia with Montana Senator Mike Mansfield. In 1963, after the Bobby Baker scandal shook the Senate, Mansfield appointed Valeo to replace Baker as Majority Secretary, a position he held during the long filibuster over the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1965 he was elected Secretary of the Senate.
Valeo's books include The Japanese Diet and the U.S. Congress (1983); and Mike Mansfield, Majority Leader: A Different Kind of Senate, 1961-1976 (1999).