Justin Gerdes, Editorial Fellow

On September 18, advocates of campaign finance reform in presidential and congressional contests rejoiced over news that U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down 15 federal political fundraising rules promulgated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Though Kollar-Kotelly did not order the FEC to stop enforcing existing rules, which makes it unlikely that the ruling will impact the November 2 election, she did direct the commission to write new rules.

At issue were regulations drafted by the FEC to implement the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, more commonly known as the McCain-Feingold bill. In October 2002, Representatives Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA), chief sponsors of the companion McCain-Feingold bill in the House, sued the FEC, accusing the commission of weakening the law. Among regulations identified by Judge Kollar-Kotelly as departing from the intent of McCain-Feingold were those that: imposed too limited a test to determine if members of Congress violated the soft money solicitation ban; exempted many tax-exempt organizations from a ban on use of corporate or union money for ads naming candidates for president or Congress within one month of a primary or two months of a general election; exempted Internet ads from regulations controlling coordination between advocacy groups, candidates and national party committees. Absent from Kollar-Kelley's decision was guidance on how to deal with 527 groups such as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Texans for Truth. The four McCain-Feingold co-sponsors, as well as the Bush-Cheney campaign, have filed suits to force the FEC to reign in 527s. On September 22, the McCain-Feingold co-sponsors introduced the 527 Reform Act, a bill that would limit individual donations to 527s to $25,000 per year and ban donations by corporations and unions altogether.

Even with the 527s left unaddressed, FEC Commissioner Michael Toner (R) urged the Justice Department to try to block the ruling, predicting that, "if the ruling is not stayed, many key parts of the federal election laws will be in chaos." Supporters of McCain-Feingold felt vindicated. "The bottom line is," said suit co-plaintiff Shays, "the FEC's interpretation of our law had no basis in the reality of the statute. This is a great decision, which provides further evidence the FEC had no intention of enforcing campaign finance law as it was intended to be enforced."