A D.C. District Court panel this week upheld a longstanding ban on foreign nationals making campaign contributions to U.S. candidates.

In their Aug. 8 ruling in Bluman v. FEC, Judges Brett Kavanaugh, Ricardo Urbina and Rosemary Collyer wrote that "The Supreme Court has long held that the government (federal, state and local) may exclude foreign citizens from activities that are part of democratic self-government in the United States. For example, the Supreme Court has ruled that the government may bar aliens from voting, serving as jurors, working as police or probation officers or teaching at public schools.

"Under those precedents, the federal ban at issue here readily passes constitutional muster."

The plaintiffs in the case, Benjamin Bluman and Asenath Steiman, filed suit against the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 19, 2010.

According to the ruling, Bluman is a Canadian national who has been a legal resident of the U.S. on a work visa since November 2009. An associate at Sidley Austin in New York, he previously lived in the U.S. on a student visa while attending law school from 2006 to 2009. He wanted to contribute to the campaigns of Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), New York state Sen. Diane Savino (D) and President Barack Obama.

The ruling also states that Steiman, a medical resident at a New York hospital, is a dual Canadian-Israeli citizen currently on a three-year visa. She wanted to contribute to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the as-yet-unnamed candidate for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination and the Club for Growth.

"In our view, spending money to influence voters and finance campaigns is at least as (and probably far more) closely related to democratic self-government than serving as a probation officer or public schoolteacher," the judges wrote. They further noted that barring foreign nationals from making campaign contributions "is part of a common international understanding of the meaning of sovereignty and shared concern about foreign influence over elections."

The ban applies to foreign citizens who live and work in the U.S. temporarily. It does not apply to naturalized U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.

A Legal Times blog post reported that the plaintiffs' attorney said they are planning to appeal.

Read the full text of the judges' ruling here.