Posted on 09/20/2004 5:58:26 PM PDT by neverdem
Jurist says the Federal Elections Commission even may be fostering corruption.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Election Commission repeatedly misinterpreted the 2002 campaign finance reform legislation when it issued rules implementing the law, creating in at least one case "an immense loophole" that could "foster corruption."
But the decision will likely have no impact on this year's election, experts said today.
Still, the ruling by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who oversaw the Microsoft settlement, was yet another blow to the beleaguered agency, which has come under fire from key members of Congress and reformers who say it is ineffective and should be abolished.
"The bottom line is, the FEC's interpretation of our law had no basis in the reality of the statute," said Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who filed the lawsuit in October 2002 with Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.)
The judge — who issued her order late Saturday — ordered the FEC to rewrite 15 regulations, including those concerning coordination, soft money fundraising solicitations, and restrictions for state parties.
The campaign finance law banned unlimited corporate, union and individual contributions to political parties. Such types of donations are typically known as soft money.
It fell to the FEC to devise rules for how the law should be enforced. (The legislation is commonly referred to as the McCain-Feingold law after the lawmakers who ushered it through the Senate. Both Sens. John McCain and Russell Feingold filed a brief with the court supporting the Shays-Meehan lawsuit.)
Shays and Meehan argued that the FEC rules weakened the legislation, creating loopholes that enabled "the subversion, erosion and circumvention of campaign finance laws."
Several FEC commissioners said today that they expected the agency to appeal the decision, but believed their rules would remain in place for now.
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