In an important ruling, a federal district court today denied SpeechNow’s request for a preliminary injunction barring the FEC from enforcing the $5,000 individual contribution limit to its PAC. The ruling comes to the opposite conclusion on this issue as the Fourth Circuit in the recent North Carolina Right to Life v. Leake case, and the district court today relies upon Judge Michael’s dissent in this case.
The SpeechNow case likely will be appealed to the D.C. Circuit, either now, or upon a final judgment on the merits, and I think it is likely that the Leake case or the SpeechNow case will be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, which, given its recent skepticism of campaign finance regulation could well side with SpeechNow/N.C. Right to Life and against supporters of individual contribution limits for PACs.
A Democracy 21 press release is here. No word yet from the Center for Competitive Politics, which is litigating the SpeechNow case. Stay tuned. UPDATE: The CCP press release denouncing the decisionis here.