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Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted review in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission and granted a motion to intervene by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), giving Democrats the ability to fight back against Republican efforts to overturn decades of precedent and rewrite longstanding campaign finance laws.
The FEC and the Department of Justice under Presidents from both parties had faithfully defended federal campaign finance law – including these specific limits – for decades. But last month, the DCCC, DSCC, and DNC were forced to take action in response to the Trump administration’s stunning refusal to defend federal law. The three committees filed a motion, which has now been granted, asking the Supreme Court to allow them to defend the federal election law which sets limits on coordinated party expenditures against the Republican Party’s challenge. These campaign finance limits have been in place for more than 50 years and have been successfully defended at the U.S. Supreme Court multiple times.
DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement:
“We refuse to sit on the sidelines as Trump’s DOJ and the Republican Party attempt to throw out longstanding election laws for their own benefit. Republicans know their grassroots support is drying up across the country, and they want to drown out the will of the voters. The DNC, DSCC, and DCCC will fight back against the Republican attempt to sow chaos and fundamentally upend our campaign finance system, which would return us to the pre-Watergate era of campaign finance. Democrats are jumping in the ring to fight tooth and nail for the American people.”
This is not the first time that Republicans have challenged these limits. Twenty-five years ago, in Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. FEC, the Supreme Court upheld these exact same limits. Unsatisfied, Republicans have continued to fight this precedent and have lost at every turn.
To view the full motion, click here. To view the granted motion to intervene, click here (page 6).
Summary of Republicans’ attempt to rewrite election laws for their own benefit:
- The Republican Party has spent decades trying to eliminate reasonable limits on political party expenditures that are coordinated with candidates’ campaigns.
- To date, those efforts have failed at every turn, ensuring a stable, predictable campaign finance structure for party committees and political candidates across the country.
- In May, that equilibrium was severely disrupted. Taking advantage of the FEC’s lack of quorum, Trump’s DOJ abandoned the U.S. Government’s long-held defense of the challenged statute and took the side of the NRSC and NRCC.
- The DCCC, DSCC, and DNC are stepping in and urging the Supreme Court to stop this blatant attempt to rewrite longstanding campaign finance law for the benefit of wealthy Republican donors.
- Free and fair elections are at-stake. Democrats will never stop fighting to defend our democracy.
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