Campaign Legal Center v. FEC alleges improper dismissal of complaint (24-02585)

On September 9, 2024, Campaign Legal Center (plaintiff) filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Plaintiff is challenging the FEC's dismissal of an administrative complaint filed against Last Best Place PAC (LBP PAC) for alleged violations of disclosure and reporting requirements under the Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act).

Background

Plaintiff filed an administrative complaint against LBP PAC with the Commission on February 14, 2024, alleging that LBP PAC formed a Super PAC in September 2023 and failed to report disbursements for a multimillion-dollar ad campaign as the Act requires. The complaint alleged that LBP PAC treated disbursements for the advertising as operating expenditures, despite one or more of the ads expressly advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified federal candidate, thus constituting "independent expenditures."

As independent expenditures, these ads would be required to be disclosed on special 48-hour reports and in the regularly scheduled committee reports, detailing each expenditure's amount, date, purpose and the identity of the candidate supported or opposed. The complaint alleged that LBP PAC's reports indicated no independent expenditures. The Commission did not find reason to believe that the alleged violations occurred and voted 4-2 to dismiss the complaint.

Plaintiff asks the court to declare the Commission's dismissal of their complaints contrary to law and order the Commission to conform with the declaration within 30 days.

Resources

• Campaign Legal Center v. FEC (24-02585) litigation page