Fed. Judge strikes down 15 FEC regulations.

[napi21]

Full story can be found at: www.democracy21.org.

Any Attorneys out there? I read some of this opinion, and can't really figur out what this all means, ather than the FEC got their a** kicked for not doing their job. Would you please take a look and let us all know what this means to the voters 7 the candidates????



Federal Judge Strikes Down Fifteen FEC Regulations in Major Victory for Congressional Sponsors of BCRA;
Key Regulations Rejected as "Arbitrary and Capricious" and "Contrary to Law"


In a major victory for the congressional sponsors of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), a federal district court judge has struck down 15 regulations adopted by the FEC in 2002 to implement the new law, including the key regulations under challenge.

The district court found that the FEC had repeatedly misinterpreted the new law in the regulations it issued, finding that one provision, for example, "runs completely afoul" of basic campaign finance law, another "severely undermines FECA " and would "foster corruption," another "would render the statute largely meaningless" and yet another has "no rational basis."

The decision was issued by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the D.C. District Court late Saturday afternoon, September 18th, in the case of Shays v. Federal Election Commission, which was brought in October 2002 by Representatives Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA). The case challenged as "arbitrary and capricious" and "contrary to law" numerous regulations adopted by the FEC to implement the BCRA. (Highlights of the district court opinion are provided below; the full opinion can be found at www.democracy21.org.)

Shays and Meehan, the principal House sponsors of the BCRA, were joined in the effort by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russell Feingold (D-WI), the principal Senate sponsors of BCRA, who filed an amicus brief in the case.

"The federal district court opinion represents a massive and stinging repudiation of the Federal Election Commission and its repeated failures to properly interpret and implement the new campaign finance law," said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer, a member of the legal team representing Representatives Shays and Meehan. The legal team is headed by Chuck Curtis of Heller, White Ehrman and McAuliffe, and also includes Roger Witten and Randy Moss of William Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, and Don Simon for Democracy 21. The Campaign Legal Center filed the amicus brief for McCain and Feingold.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly substantially agreed with the plaintiffs, invalidating almost all of the regulations they challenged, including all of the most significant ones. In total, the court struck down 15 regulations, including:

ƒÞ regulations defining "coordination"

ƒÞ regulations excluding the Internet from coordination rules

ƒÞ regulations defining "agent" for purposes of the coordination rules

ƒÞ regulations defining the term "solicit"

ƒÞ regulations defining the term "direct"

ƒÞ regulations defining "agent" for purposes of the soft money rules

ƒÞ regulations relating to state party fundraising rules

ƒÞ regulations defining "voter registration" for state party soft money rules

ƒÞ regulations defining "get out the vote activity" for state party soft money rules

ƒÞ regulations defining "voter identification" for state party soft money rules

ƒÞ regulations defining "generic campaign activity" for state party soft money rules

ƒÞ regulations regarding state, district and local employees for state party soft money rules

ƒÞ regulations relating to a de minimis exemption from the Levin Amendment for state party soft money rules

ƒÞ regulations exempting 501(c)(3) groups from the "electioneering communications" rules

ƒÞ regulations exempting broadcasts not "for a fee" from the "electioneering communications" rules

The court upheld four other challenged regulations, relating to the "grandfather" provision in the soft money rules, the "Levin Amendment" fundraising rules, certain party accounting procedures, and definitions of the terms state, district and local party committees.

In a decision highly critical of the FEC's rulemaking proceeding, Judge Kollar-Kotelly remanded the 15 invalidated rules back to the Commission "for further action consistent" with her 157-page Opinion and Order

[sybylla]

1. Looks like good news to me

I'm no expert, but I'd say that the court just struck down all the FEC(maladministration) regulations misconstructed in an effort to negate the effects of campaign finance reform.