In an opinion dated Saturday but more widely reported today, a federal district court struck down a number of Federal Election Commission rules implementing the McCain-Feingold (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act/BCRA) law passed by Congress in 2002. I have not had a chance to review the lengthy opinion; Bob Bauer has posted some initial commentary here.
What impact will this ruling have on the rules for the upcoming election? It is not clear that it will have any impact. The judge remanded the case for additional proceedings at the FEC consistent with the opinion. I am not sure when the opinion becomes final, and whether there might be any stay sought of the ruling should the FEC decide to appeal the case to the D.C. Circuit.
I certainly hope that the rules that were in effect at the FEC will continue to be in effect for this election cycle. With just six weeks before the election, it would be chaos for some of the basic fundraising rules to be changed now.
UPDATE: See this A.P. report.