Judge tosses Democratic Party challenge to Trump order’s impact on FEC

Election Law Blog ^ | June 4th, 2025 | Derek Muller

[Jim Robinson]

Politico:

A federal judge has dismissed a Democratic Party lawsuit claiming an executive order issued by President Donald Trump was intruding on the independence of the Federal Election Commission.

In a ruling Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali said the Democratic Party groups’ case was simply too speculative to justify emergency intervention from the court. The FEC had pledged to remain independent, had received no directive from the White House to change its practices and vowed to abide by the law. Without evidence undermining those promises, Ali said he was compelled to dismiss the suit. Page scroll down The Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee filed the suit in February after Trump issued an executive order that sought to assert greater control over executive branch agencies that have traditionally operated with considerable independence from the White House.

From the court’s opinion, which finds the executive order to be more bark than bite (so far):

The possibility that the President and Attorney General would take the extraordinary step of issuing a directive to the FEC or its Commissioners purporting to bind their interpretation of FECA is not sufficiently concrete and imminent to create Article III injury. . . .

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TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: democrats; fec; trump

[Jim Robinson]

received VIA email