Branstool v. FEC
Summary
On April 4, 1995, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted defendant's motion for summary judgment. This decision sustains the Commission's dismissal of plaintiffs' administrative complaint.
Background
The origins of this case are rooted in the 1988 Presidential contest between Republican candidate George Bush and Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis. In the course of the Presidential race, the National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC) financed the production and airing of the "Willie Horton" ad. This ad attacked the Democratic candidate by blaming then Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis for the violent crimes committed by a convict while on furlough from a state prison.
Plaintiffs filed an administrative complaint with the FEC in May 1990, alleging that the NSPAC coordinated the production and airing of the Willie Horton ad with the Bush campaign. Under the Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act), a candidate running in a Presidential general election who accepts public funding may not accept contributions. The Bush campaign accepted public funding. If, as plaintiffs claimed, the Horton ad had been coordinated, then it would have been an in-kind contribution, in violation of 26 U.S.C. §9003(b)(2). The complaint thus hinged on the issue of whether the Horton ad was a coordinated in-kind contribution, and therefore illegal, or a permissible independent expenditure as defined under 2 U.S.C. §431(17).[1]
After examining the complaint, the Commission found reason to believe that the Bush campaign and the NSPAC had violated the Act, but after a limited investigation into the matter, the Commission deemed the evidence inconclusive and decided to take no further action on the matter. Plaintiffs' complaint was subsequently dismissed.
This led plaintiffs to file this suit in January 1992, claiming that the FEC had abused its discretion in not conducting a comprehensive investigation and had violated the Act by dismissing plaintiffs' complaint. Plaintiffs noted that among the FEC investigation's findings were a record of a June 1988 telephone conversation between the Bush campaign's chief media advisor and a NSPAC media consultant, and documentation showing that a media technician worked for both NSPAC and the Bush campaign. Plaintiffs contended that these findings were proof of coordination.
The court's decision
In addressing plaintiffs' challenge to the Commission's decision to limit the investigation into their complaint, the court saw no reason to depart from the general policy of giving broad deference to agency prosecutorial decisions.
The court held that it could set aside FEC statutory interpretations as "impermissible" only if they have no reasonable basis. The court concluded that the factual conclusions underpinning the Commission's decision were "sufficiently reasonable" to warrant the court's deference.
For instance, in dismissing the complaint, the Commission concluded that the inference of coordination created by the telephone call was rebutted by other findings. With regard to the media technician's dual employment, the Commission reasonably concluded that he performed technical tasks for the two committees and had no role in substantive or strategic decisions.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] An independent expenditure is an expenditure made without any coordination with a candidate's campaign for a communication which expressly advocates the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate for federal office.
Source: FEC Record— June 1995. Branstool v. FEC, No. 92-0284 (D.D.C. Apr. 4, 1995).