Roger Sollenberger for The Daily Beast:

For years, dark money groups have enjoyed certain advantages that offer donors anonymity—putting the proverbial “dark” in “dark money.”

But late last month, one small outside group quietly told election law regulators to shove off when watchdogs demanded to see the group’s donors, a move that legal experts say could signal a profound shift in campaign finance disclosure laws, making dark money even darker just in time for the 2024 election.

The group, a left-leaning climate change advocacy organization called “Protect Our Winters Action Fund,” was standing its ground after a notice from the Federal Election Commission flagged the group’s failure to disclose contributors, as the law requires.

In response, POWAF—a 501(c)(4) nonprofit—simply declined to disclose its donors. And as a justification, the group cited a policy statement from the FEC’s three Republican commissioners released in June 2022, signaling they would not enforce “dark money” disclosure rules as courts had previously decided.

That policy statement does not carry the force of law. And legal experts told The Daily Beast that the commissioners’ memo—written in response to two federal court rulings that had interpreted the law the opposite way—undercuts judicial decisions favoring transparency.

Instead, these experts said, GOP commissioners are apparently signaling they will unilaterally refuse to enforce the law as courts have defined it. With all FEC enforcement decisions requiring support from four of the six commissioners, this three-commissioner Republican contingent could block any action.

While the mechanisms involved may seem highly technical and obscure, the potential consequences are broad and easy to understand.