FEC v. NCPAC (83-2823)

In September 1980, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Section 9012(f) was unconstitutional as applied to Americans for Change, Americans for an Effective Presidency and FCM, three multicandidate political committees (not affiliated with any parent organization). This provision of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act prohibits unauthorized committees (i.e., those not authorized by a candidate) from making expenditures exceeding $1,000 to further the election of a publicly funded Presidential nominee in the general election. The committees had planned to make expenditures in excess of $1,000 to support the Republican Presidential nominee's general election campaign.

On January 19, 1982, the Supreme Court voted 4 to 4 to affirm the D.C. district court's September decision, with Justice Sandra O'Connor not participating. However, since the high Court's vote on the suit had been equally divided, its affirmance had no precedential value. Subsequently, the FEC issued advisory opinions to NCPAC and FCM in which the FEC stated that Section 9012(f) may be enforced.[1]

In an effort to obtain a final ruling by the high Court on Section 9012(f)'s constitutionality, the FEC filed a new suit with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on June 14, 1983. (FEC v. NCPAC and FCM; Civil Action No. 83-2823.) This suit was consolidated with another suit, Democratic National Committee (DNC) v. NCPAC (Civil Action 83-2329), which had been filed on May 1, 1983. The FEC intervened in that suit as defendants and argued that the DNC lacked statutory and constitutional standing to bring that action. In the consolidated suits, plaintiffs asked that a three-judge panel of the court be convened to declare that:

• Expenditures (in excess of $1,000) that NCPAC and FCM each intended to make on behalf of the publicly funded Republican Presidential nominee in 1984 would be prohibited by, and in violation of, 26 U.S.C. §9012(f)(1); and
• Section 9012(f)(1), as applied to the defendant committees, was constitutional.

District court's ruling

On December 12, 1983, the Pennsylvania district court first ruled that the Democrats had standing to bring suit. The court then held that Section 9012(f) was unconstitutional on its face because it violated First Amendment rights of free speech and association. The court based its finding on the Buckley v. Valeo opinion. That opinion, the court said, allows "restrictions on true campaign speech only to prevent corruption or its appearance." The court concluded that "plaintiffs have produced virtually no evidence of actual corruption and little admissible evidence of the appearance of corruption." The court held the view that "modest expenditures by political committees...[such as the defendant committee] have almost no potential to corrupt or to create the appearance of corruption.... "

On December 16, 1983, the FEC filed an appeal of this decision with the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court's ruling

On March 18, 1985, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling in FEC v. National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC) (CA No. 83-1032), which affirmed the Pennsylvania district court's decision that 26 U.S.C. §9012(f) was unconstitutional on its face because the provision violated First Amendment rights of free speech and association. However, the Court reversed the district court's holding that the Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee (the Democrats) had standing to file a suit regarding Section 9012(f)'s constitutionality and instructed the lower court to dismiss the Democrats' suit.

The Democrats lack standing to bring suit

In reversing the lower court's ruling that the Democrats had standing to bring suit, the Supreme Court noted that, while the Fund Act authorized the Democratic National Committee to bring "appropriate" suit,[2] such private suits "to construe or enforce the Act are inappropriate interference" with the FEC's "responsibilities for administering and enforcing the Fund Act."

Section 9012(f) violates the First Amendment

The Court noted initially that "the expenditures at issue are squarely prohibited by §9012(f)." Nevertheless, since the committees' allegedly independent expenditures on behalf of President Reagan's campaign "produc[ed] speech at the core of the First Amendment and implicat[ed] the freedom of association, they [were] entitled to full protection under that Amendment." The Court stated that in a Presidential election, "allowing the presentation of [political] views while forbidding the expenditure of more than $1,000 to present them is much like allowing a speaker in a public hall to express his views while denying him the use of an amplifying system."

The Court therefore concluded that "Section 9012(f)'s limitation on independent expenditures by political committees is constitutionally infirm, absent any indication that such expenditures have a tendency to corrupt or to give the appearance of corruption. But even assuming that Congress could fairly conclude that large-scale political action committees have a sufficient tendency to corrupt, §9012(f) is a fatally overbroad response to that evil. It is not limited to multimillion dollar war chests, but applies equally to informal discussion groups that solicit neighborhood contributions to publicize views about a particular Presidential candidate."

Finally, the Court held that "section 9012(f) cannot be upheld as a prophylactic measure deemed necessary by Congress. The groups and associations in question here, designed expressly to participate in political debate, are quite different from the traditional organizations organized for economic gain [e.g., corporations and labor organizations] that may properly be prohibited from making contributions to political candidates."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For a summary of AO's 1983-10 and 1983-11, see the July 1983 Record, p. 2.

[2] Under Section 9011(b)(1) of the Fund Act, the national committee of a political party, the FEC and individuals eligible to vote for President may file appropriate actions which seek to implement or construe provisions of the Fund Act.

Source:   FEC Record — May 1985; January 1984. FEC v. National Conservative Political Action Committee; Democratic Party of U.S. v. National Conservative Political Action Committee; 578 F. Supp. 797 (E.D. Pa. 1983) (three-judge court) aff'd in part, rev'd in part, 470 U.S. 480 (1985).