District Court issues memorandum opinion, order in CREW v. FEC (Case No. 22-0035)

WASHINGTON – The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order in CREW v. FEC (Case No. 22-0035) granting Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and denying the Commission’s motion for voluntary remand.

In 2018, the Plaintiff filed an administrative complaint with the Commission alleging that Freedom Vote, a nonprofit organization, had violated the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (the Act), by failing to register and report as a political committee. The Commission considered the merits of the complaint in MUR 7465, but it was equally divided on whether to find probable cause that Freedom Vote violated the Act. Accordingly, the Commission closed the file in the matter in November 2021. Plaintiff then filed suit in the District Court in January 2022 to challenge the Commission’s dismissal of the complaint.

The District Court found that the Commission’s dismissal of the complaint was contrary to law because the Commission failed to offer a timely explanation of its reasons for the dismissal. The court remanded the matter to the Commission with orders to conform to the court’s order within 30 days by deciding whether to dismiss Plaintiff’s administrative complaint and, if the Commission does not pursue the complaint further, by issuing a contemporaneous explanation of its reasoning.