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Federal courts can’t step in when FEC opts out, appeals panel rules

Judges have no business stepping in when the agency in charge of enforcing campaign finance law decides not to, the federal appeals court in Washington has concluded.

Tuesday's decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a significant blow to advocates of tougher regulation of money in politics.

By leaving intact an earlier interpretation of the law, the judges have decide that federal courts will not second-guess the Federal Elections Commission when it decides not to sanction campaigns or outside groups for violating campaign finance laws – even when such a non-enforcement move is the consequence of a deadlock, not because of an affirmative choice.


"With this decision, @FEC has utterly lost its ability to enforce the law as foreign govts attack our elections, dark-money groups operate from the shadows, & super PACs run rampant. The law will now only be enforced when my obstructionist GOP colleagues deign to do so," tweeted FEC Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub, the sole Democrat on the commission, who said the court had effectively given more power to her Republican colleagues.



One GOP commissioner, Caroline Hunter, conceded as much to The Washington Post's Michelle Ye Hee Lee: "Although this decision reaffirms the Commission's longstanding authority to set its own enforcement priorities, the decision deals a blow to the so-called reformers' efforts to use the [FEC] as a partisan rubber stamp for their own agenda."

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Since February 2018, two of the six seats on the FEC have been vacant, and the four remaining commissioners have rarely found agreement. In order to make decisions, at least four commissioners must concur – requiring unanimity until more commissioners win Senate confirmation.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued the FEC after its 2015 decision not the punish a conservative dark money group called Commission on Hope, Growth and Opportunity, which spent almost $5 million on ads featuring dancing cartoon representations of Democratic candidates in 2010 but told the IRS that none of its spending was for political activities.

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We Need to Rethink Polarization Before It Becomes a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

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Getty Images / Andrii Yalanskyi

We Need to Rethink Polarization Before It Becomes a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

It’s time to rethink the notion that we Americans are too polarized to work together and get things done. And it’s time to get clear-eyed about what’s really holding us back and what it will take to help us move forward together.

A few years ago, I engaged cross-sections of Americans from all across the country in 16 in-depth focus groups about how they were feeling about their lives, the country, and our future. These conversations resulted in the report Civic Virus: Why Polarization is a Misdiagnosis.

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Even in victory, Republicans should listen to their opponents

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Even in victory, Republicans should listen to their opponents

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, many people have discussed Democrats’ mistakes—from being “out of touch” and insulting, to focusing too much on Trump, to Biden’s “arrogance” in running again. It’s good for political parties to ask tough questions about how their approach may be driving people away and how they can better serve people.

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Honor The Past Without Shame: Anniversaries Pass, Trauma Remains

Even as the wildfires of California continue, having affected an estimated 200,000 residents and resulted in 27 deaths, the memory of the Northridge Earthquake of January 1994 and the mass devastation and destruction afterward still linger three decades later.

The fires raged recently on the anniversary of the earthquake in the San Fernando Valley in California, when 33 people died and 7,000 were injured with a damage cost estimated up to $40 billion. The loss of life, livelihood, and long-term lingering trauma experienced has been widely recognized by mental health professionals and the lay community as well.

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