District Court issues memorandum opinion, order in Campaign Legal Center v. FEC (Case No. 24-2585)

WASHINGTON – The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia yesterday issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order in Campaign Legal Center v. FEC (Case No. 24-2585), granting Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment and denying the Commission’s Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment.

In February 2024, the Plaintiff filed an administrative complaint with the Commission alleging that Last Best Place PAC, a political action committee, had violated the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (the Act), by failing to report certain independent expenditures in connection with the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Montana. The Commission considered the complaint in MUR 8216 and voted to dismiss the matter in July 2024. Commissioners subsequently issued Statements of Reasons explaining their votes in the matter. Plaintiff then filed suit in the district court in September 2024, challenging the Commission’s dismissal of the complaint as arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law.

The district court found that while the Commission’s dismissal was based on a permissible interpretation of the Act, the Commission did not adequately explain its dismissal of the matter. Accordingly, the court granted Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment and remanded the case to the Commission, ordering it to conform to the court’s judgment within 30 days.