Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Election Commission rules limiting how Emily’s List and other independent groups can raise and spend money for political campaigns were thrown out by a U.S. appeals court in Washington.
The decision will make it much easier for the groups to use large donations -- so-called soft money -- to pay for voter registration efforts, advertising and get-out-the-vote drives. The court struck down rules that forced the groups to pay at least half of those expenses with money raised from donors who are currently barred from contributing more than $5,000 a year.
Emily’s List, which supports female Democratic candidates who back abortion rights, said the FEC rules violated the Constitution’s First Amendment free-speech guarantee.
“We agree with Emily’s List that the new FEC regulations contravene those principles and violate the First Amendment,” Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote for a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The judge was appointed by former President George W. Bush.
“We are pleased with the ruling of the court today,” said Ellen Malcolm, president of Emily’s List, in a statement. “As a result of this decision, Emily’s List will be able to allocate its federal and non-federal expenses in a manner that reflects our actual work and we will continue to support state and local candidates across the country.”
Judith Ingram, a spokeswoman for the FEC, had no immediate comment.
‘A Loophole’
Tara Malloy, an associate counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington watchdog group that filed a brief supporting the FEC, said the ruling would “create a loophole” letting nonprofits use unregulated donations to influence federal elections.
In the decision, Kavanaugh said nonprofit organizations are different from corporations and labor unions, which are barred by federal law from donating money from their general treasuries to federal candidates or the political parties.
“The court has been somewhat more tolerant of regulation of for-profit corporations and labor unions,” Kavanaugh wrote.
Corporate donations are at the heart of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court involving efforts by the advocacy group Citizens United to promote a documentary critical of 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The high court is considering overturning longstanding federal restrictions on corporate campaign spending.
In today’s ruling, the court was “reaching out to send a message about the limits on regulating political activity,” said former FEC General Counsel Larry Noble, a lawyer with the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. “We may be seeing a lot more of that” because of the case before the Supreme Court, Noble said.
2004 Election
The FEC enacted the rules governing nonprofits following the 2004 presidential election. During that campaign, MoveOn.org Voter Fund, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and other groups spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising and other efforts to support the major party nominees.
The commission later fined 11 such groups more than $3 million for violating campaign finance laws.
Spending by such groups fell to $258 million for the 2008 election from $442 million four years earlier, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington research group.
The case is Emily’s List v. Federal Election Commission, 08-5422, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
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