Petition for rulemaking on Citizens United

On January 26, 2010, the James Madison Center for Free Speech submitted a Petition for Rulemaking to the Commission following the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC (Citizens United), which the Court issued on January 21, 2010. The petition requested that the Commission adopt temporary and permanent regulations stating that it will not enforce provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) which prohibit corporations, labor organizations and membership organizations from making certain independent expenditures and electioneering communications. 2 U.S.C. §441b. The petition also requested that the Commission adopt conforming regulations to the Court's decision in Citizens United.

The petition requests that the Commission's conforming regulations should include the following:

• A repeal of 11 CFR 114.2 and 114.14 insofar as they implement the prohibitions of 2 U.S.C. §441b that Citizens United struck down;
• Acknowledging that §441b no longer bans corporations, unions or membership organizations from engaging in independent spending for political speech beyond their restricted classes and repealing 11 CFR 114.4 insofar as it bans such speech;
• A repeal of 11 CFR 114.9 insofar as it implements 2 U.S.C. §441b and bans independent spending for political speech;
• A repeal of 11 CFR 114.10 as Citizens United renders this section unnecessary because it functioned as an exception to the Section 441b prohibition on corporate independent expenditures; and
• A repeal of 11 CFR 114.15, as the "appeal-to-vote test" contained therein only applies to electioneering communications and Citizens United removed the §441b ban on electioneering communications as unconstitutional regardless of whether their only reasonable interpretation is as an appeal to vote for or against a clearly identified candidate or candidates in the jurisdiction.

The Petition for Rulemaking is available on the FEC's website at http://transition.fec.gov/pdf/nprm/citizensunited2010/james_madison_petition.pdf.