The same judge who threw out the Microsoft break-up ruling, and
backed the feds
in the Gitmo case today
issued a 157-page ruling today which rejects 15 of 19 of the campaign finance law passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush two years ago. The ruling does not affect the law's key provision, prohibiting large donations to political parties, known as "soft money", but does seem to create some uncertainty for political fund-raising, with only six weeks to go until the elections.
Highlights and links inside
Of the 19 rules which implement the law, and which were authored by the FEC, one of them "runs contrary to Congress' intent," while another creates a loophole to circumvent spending limits and creates a "potential for gross abuse" of the rules, according to Her Honor.
The ruling received high praise from Rep. Shays (R-Conn.), one of the four key authors of the legislation, as a victory for campaign-finance reform, and a wake-up call to the FEC, which "had no intention of enforcing campaign finance law as it was intended to be enforced.", according to Shays.
From the
ABC Coverage,
Kolar-Kotelly has overturned the following "key" FEC rules which:
- Imposed a narrow test to determine whether a lawmaker was violating the soft money solicitation ban. Under the FEC rules, the only way a federal candidate or officeholder could violate the solicitation ban would be by explicitly asking for soft money.
- Exempted Internet ads from rules on coordination among interest groups, federal candidates and national party committees.
- Exempted an entire class of tax-exempt organizations from a ban on the use of corporate or union money for ads mentioning presidential or congressional candidates within a month before a primary or two months before a general election.
- Defined coordination only as agreement between a spender and candidate or party.
- Excluded coordinated ads aired more than 120 days before an election.
The Judge ordered the FEC to write new rules for coordination between candidates and outside parties, governing soft-money, and regulating at least some political activity conducted over the Internet.
The FEC Chairman, is quoted as saying he wants the agency to appeal the ruling, and the Vice-Chairman has stated that it is her position that the current rules will remain in effect until the appeal is won, or new rules can be written. The ruling did not specifically addres 527s. Shays and Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass) filed a separate lawsuit last week seeking to limit the influence of these organizations.
See also
Newsmax and
CBS coverage.