Stay Sought in Ruling on ‘Soft Money’
The Federal Election Commission has asked a federal court to postpone implementation of a judge’s ruling that invalidated 15 regulations enacting campaign finance reform legislation.
But attorneys for U.S. Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.) are expected to ask the court today to immediately enact U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling.
On Sept. 18, Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the FEC had misinterpreted the campaign finance law, passed in 2002, when it devised rules to implement it. She struck down more than a dozen FEC rules, many focusing on “soft money” donations, and ordered the commission to rewrite them. She did not set a timetable for doing so.
The FEC, which appealed the judge’s harshly worded decision, sought the stay late Friday.
Shays and Meehan had argued that the FEC rules weakened the campaign finance legislation as approved by Congress, creating loopholes that enabled “subversion, erosion and circumvention” of the law.
The legislation banned unlimited corporate, union and individual contributions to political parties. Such types of donations are typically known as soft money.
The two sides have not been able to agree on whether Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling would affect this year’s presidential campaign and current regulations.
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