Contribution to Abortion Rights Advocacy Organization EMILY's List PAC Raises Questions of Legality And Hints of Things to Come
Until Friday, it was widely held to be illegal for a federal political action committee to accept contributions in excess of $5,000. That's when a federal court ruled in SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission that individuals may contribute unlimited sums to committees whose sole function is making independent political expenditures.
Roughly two months earlier, though, the abortion rights advocacy organization EMILY's List accepted a quarter-million-dollar contribution from a single, individual donor to its non-federal 527 committee, which is allowed to raise unlimited sums. It then shifted a portion of that contribution into a newly created political committee designed to solely run independent expenditures.
The question, then, is this: Did EMILY's List jump the gun? Did they make a smart, strategic decision before anyone else? Or did they violate the letter or the spirit of federal campaign finance law by this action in January?
The situation unfolded as such:
No comments:
Post a Comment