Appeals Court deals blow to FEC

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Appeals Court deals blow to FEC
By Reid Wilson - 09/18/09 05:04 PM ET


The Federal Election Commission seriously overstepped its bounds in applying laws aimed at curbing the influence of outside organizations in political campaigns, a U.S. District Court of Appeals panel ruled Friday.

The opinion, stemming from a suit brought by EMILY's List, the pro-abortion rights Democratic organization, leans heavily on First Amendment grounds in striking down FEC regulations covering political spending by outside organizations.

The ruling strikes down regulations that governed how independent groups could pay for voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, administrative costs and generic advertisements supporting one party or another. Previously, the FEC required groups to fund such activities with contributions from both so-called hard and soft money accounts.

Hard money is subject to campaign contribution limits, meaning that donors could only give $2,400 based on current limits. Soft money is subject to no such limits, meaning donors can give unlimited amounts but that the various committees can only use those funds in narrow ways.

But campaign finance reform advocates are most upset, and Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act opponents are most heartened, by language that strikes down the requirement that independent groups use hard money to pay the full cost of advertisements that refer to a federal candidate.

Instead, a two-judge majority ruled that nonprofit organizations like EMILY's List "are constitutionally entitled" to pay for the advertisements with soft money. That opens the door, election law experts say, to allowing far more independent expenditures than at any time since BCRA became law.

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http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/59441--appeals-court-deals-blow-to-fec