In late July, the federal district court in Washington, D.C., rejected the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) attempt to end our lawsuit seeking FEC enforcement of federal campaign finance law against Ashcroft 2000 and the Spirit of America PAC (John Ashcroft’s 2000 US Senate reelection committee and his leadership PAC, respectively). Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the FEC to respond to interrogatories (written questions we asked of the agency about its handling of the charges against Ashcroft’s political committees) that we served in November 2002. Judge Sullivan also denied the FEC’s motion for summary judgment "without prejudice to reconsideration upon the completion of discovery." The ruling was particularly important because the FEC has steadfastly maintained we are entitled to only minimal information in our prosecution of this lawsuit.

Despite this order, at a status conference before the court in September, the FEC continued to argue that we are not entitled to additional information. Judge Sullivan still did not agree with the agency’s argument, advising its lawyers that they could object to anything they found improper but not until we actually requested something from them. We are now in the process of making those discovery requests – for documents and for testimony from important witnesses. We will continue to press this litigation to ensure that the FEC carries out its responsibility to enforce federal campaign finance law and to ensure that no one – not even the United States Attorney General – is above the law.

National Voting Rights Institute, 27 School Street, Suite 500, Boston, MA 02108
Phone: (617) 624-3900  ¤  Fax: (617) 624-3911  ¤  www.nvri.org  ¤  nvri@nvri.org