District Court Rejects Challenge to Disclosure Provisions Upheld by Supreme Court in Citizens United

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a challenge to the federal “electioneering communications” disclosure provisions in Independence Institute v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). Last month, Democracy 21 and Public Citizen joined the Campaign Legal Center in filing an amici brief in the case, urging the Court to reject the suit, arguing that the exact same disclosure provisions had been upheld by the Supreme Court as recently as the 2010 Citizens United decision.

“The district court’s decision today to reject a challenge to federal disclosure laws was absolutely correct,” said Democracy 21 general counsel Donald Simon. “While the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance rulings have been awful on most subjects, they have been very good on disclosure.  In Citizens United, the Supreme Court by an 8-1 vote upheld the disclosure provisions at issue here, and of course the district court had no choice but to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling and to dismiss this new challenge.”

Plaintiff sought to run a broadcast ad referring to Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) shortly before Election Day without disclosing its donors. The challenged law requires such disclosure when groups spend more than $10,000 on “electioneering communications”—defined as any television or radio ad that mentions the name of a federal candidate within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary election. Congress enacted the “electioneering communications” disclosure law as part of the McCain-Feingold Act to curb widespread evasion of earlier disclosure requirements that applied only to “express advocacy” ads. Since then, the Supreme Court has twice upheld the “electioneering communications” disclosure requirements: first in McConnell v. FEC (2003) in a facial challenge, and again in Citizens United v. FEC (2010) in an as-applied challenge nearly identical to the current lawsuit.

To read the court’s opinion, click here.

To read the brief, click here.