The Federal Election Commission held an open session meeting today and approved a new rule regarding federal candidate/officeholder participation in nonfederal fundraising events. Documents related to the rule are available here (the rule was approved with some amendments and the final version is not available as of the time of this writing). The Commission also […]
Month: April 2010
As I tweeted earlier, no fast track SCOTUS review for DISCLOSE Act challenges
The DISCLOSE Act, unlike BCRA (in section 403), does not provide for a fast track appeal to the Supreme Court. (Sec. 501 of the Senate version.) Instead, those who seek to challenge the constitutionality of the Act’s provisions will have to rely on the lower court’s obligation to “expedite” consideration of their claims.
Express advocacy: why should courts and the FEC have all the fun?
The DISCLOSE Act doesn’t seem to directly define “express advocacy”; it amends the definition of “independent expenditure” in 2 USC 431(17) to provide that the term means an expenditure by a person that, when taken as a whole, expressly advocates the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate, or is the functional equivalent of express […]