| Subject: more on FEC rebuke |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 6/17/2003, 7:36 AM |
| To: election-law |
"A certification of the FEC vote, obtained by BNA through a Freedom of Information Act request, did not explain why the FEC opted against recommending an appeal. The FEC's three Republicans--David Mason, Bradley Smith, and Michael Toner--voted against a Supreme Court appeal in the case, while Democrats Danny McDonald and Scott Thomas voted for an appeal and Democrat Karl Sandstrom abstained. It would have taken the votes of at least four of the six commissioners to recommend an appeal.
"Since the vote on the Beaumont case, Sandstrom has been replaced by another Democrat on the FEC, Ellen Weintraub, who now holds the commission's rotating chairmanship. Weintraub told BNA June 16 that she was pleased with the Supreme Court's Beaumont ruling because it clarified an important area of the law. She said the result showed that the FEC should have voted to appeal the Fourth Circuit ruling last year.
On the other hand, the FEC's Republican vice chairman, Bradley Smith, told BNA he had no second thoughts about the commission's decision not to appeal the Beaumont case last year. Smith said he viewed lower court ruling in Beaumont as a logical extension the Supreme Court's 1986 ruling in FEC v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life,known as the MCFL case."-- Rick Hasen Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow Loyola Law School 919 South Albany Street Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211 (213)736-1466 (213)380-3769 - fax rick.hasen@lls.edu http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html http://electionlaw.blogspot.com