Bread Political Action Committee v. Federal Election Committee

• Decision Date: 08 March 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80-1481,80-1481
• Citation: 71 L.Ed.2d 432,455 U.S. 577,102 S.Ct. 1235
• Parties: BREAD POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, et al., Appellants, v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMITTEE, et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

455 U.S. 577

102 S.Ct. 1235

71 L.Ed.2d 432

BREAD POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, et al., Appellants,

v FEDERAL ELECTION COMMITTEE, et al.

No. 80-1481.

Argued Jan. 19, 1982.

Decided March 8, 1982.

Syllabus

Section 310(a) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 lists three categories of plaintiffs who may challenge the constitutionality of any provision of the Act in a federal district court action in which the district court must certify all questions of constitutionality to the court of appeals sitting en banc: (1) the Federal Election Commission, (2) "the national committee of any political party," and (3) "any individual eligible to vote in any election for the office of President." Appellants, two trade associations and three political action committees (PAC's), filed an action in Federal District Court, challenging the validity of the provisions of the Act limiting the extent to which such associations and their PAC's may solicit funds for political purposes, and sought expedited consideration of the action under § 310(a). The District Court denied such consideration on the ground that appellants were not within any of the three categories listed as eligible to invoke § 310(a)'s expedited procedures. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded, holding that § 310(a) is available for use by plaintiffs whether they belong to an enumerated category or not, and on subsequent certification from the District Court upheld the challenged solicitation provisions.

Held: Only parties belonging to one of the three categories listed in § 310(a) may invoke its expedited procedures, and since appellants are not within any of those categories, they may not invoke such procedures. The text of § 310(a) states plainly enough which plaintiffs may invoke its special procedures. This plain language controls the construction of § 310(a), absent "clear evidence" of a "clearly expressed" contrary congressional intent, and appellants have not met the burden of showing such "clear evidence" of a contrary intent. The fact that Congress wanted a broad class of questions to be speedily resolved does not imply that it intended the courts to augment the enumeration of qualified plaintiffs. Nor is there any merit to appellants' contention that Congress specified the three enumerated classes of plaintiffs simply to remove any doubts about their standing, but not to exclude others by implication. Pp. 580-585.

635 F.2d 621, reversed and remanded.

Jeffrey Cole, Chicago, Ill., for appellants.

Charles N. Steele, Washington, D. C., for appellees.

Justice O'CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.

Section 310(a) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA), 88 Stat. 1285, as amended, 2 U.S.C. § 437h(a) (1976 ed., Supp.IV), lists three categories of plaintiffs who may challenge the constitutional validity of FECA in specially expedited suits: (1) the Federal Election Commission (FEC), (2) "the national committee of any political party," and (3) "any individual eligible to vote in any election for the office of President." In this case, we address a question we expressly reserved in California Medical Assn. v. FEC, 453 U.S. 182, 187 n. 6, 101 S.Ct. 2712, 2717, n. 6, 69 L.Ed.2d 567 (1981): whether a party not belonging to one of the three categories listed in § 437h(a) may nonetheless invoke its procedures.

I

The appellants are two trade associations and three political action committees (PAC's): the National Restaurant Association and its associated PAC, the Restaurateurs Politicyl Action Committee, the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association and its associated PAC, the Lumber Dealers Political Action Committee, and the Bread Political Action Committee, the PAC associated with the American Bakers Association. In order to challenge the validity of 2 U.S.C. § 441b(b)(4)(D), which has the effect of limiting the extent to which trade associations and their PAC's may solicit funds for political purposes,¹ the appellants filed an ac- tion in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, seeking expedited consideration of their suit under the procedures set forth in § 437h.² The District Court denied certification under § 437h on the ground that the plaintiff trade associations and PAC's do not belong to any of the three categories of plaintiffs listed in § 437h(a) as eligible to invoke its expedited procedures. On an interlocutory appeal from this ruling, a panel of the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that § 437h(a) is available for use by plaintiffs whether they belong to an enumerated category or not. 591 F.2d 29 (CA7 1979). On remand, the District Court, as required by § 437h(a), first made findings of fact and then certified the case back to the Court of Appeals sitting en banc for a determination on the constitutional questions raised by the appellants. The en banc court declined to overrule the earlier panel decision regarding the reach of § 437h(a), and proceeded to the merits of the appellants' claims, upholding the constitutionality of the challenged provisions. 635 F.2d 621 (CA7 1980). The present appeal to this Court followed, confronting us with the question whether § 437h(a) should be construed to permit parties, such as the appellants, who do not belong to one of its three specifically enumerated classes, nonetheless to invoke its procedures.

II

Our analysis of this issue of statutory construction "must begin with the language of the statute itself," Dawson Chemical Co. v. Rohm & Haas Co., 448 U.S. 176, 187, 100 S.Ct. 2601, 2607, 65 L.Ed.2d 696 (1980), and "[a]bsent a clearly expressed legislative intention to the contrary, that language must ordinarily be regarded as conclusive." Consumer Product Safety Comm'n v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., 447 U.S. 102, 108, 100 S.Ct. 2051, 2056, 64 L.Ed.2d 766 (1980). Moreover, when the statute to be construed creates, as § 437h(a) does, a class of cases that command the immediate attention of this Court and of the courts of appeals sitting en banc, displacing existing caseloads and calling court of appeals judges away from their normal duties for expedited en banc sittings, close construction of statutory language takes on added importance. As we have said: "Jurisdictional statutes are to be construed 'with precision and with fidelity to the terms by which Congress has expressed its wishes'; and we are particularly prone to accord 'strict construction of statutes authorizing appeals' to this Court." Palmore v. United States, 411 U.S. 389, 396, 93 S.Ct. 1670, 1675, 36 L.Ed.2d 342 (1973) (citations omitted). In short, the plain language of § 437h(a) controls its construction, at least in the absence of "clear evidence," United States v. Apfelbaum, 445 U.S. 115, 121, 100 S.Ct. 948, 952, 68 L.Ed.2d 250 (1980), of a "clearly expressed legislative intention to the contrary," Consumer Product Safety Comm'n v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., supra, 447 U.S. at 108, 100 S.Ct. at 2056.

The text of § 437h(a) states plainly enough which plaintiffs may invoke its special procedures: "The Commission, the national committee of any political party, or any individual eligible to vote in any election for the office of President." Thus, § 437h(a) affords its unique system of expedited review to three carefully chosen classes of persons who might meet the minimum standing requirements of Art. III. The only artificial persons expressly entitled to invoke § 437h(a) are the Federal Election Commission, which is charged with enforcing the Act, and the national committees of political parties, which play a central role in the political process.

In the face of the obvious meaning of the language of § 437h(a), the appellants urge what they concede to be an "expansive construction" of the section. Reply Brief for Appellants 3. Indeed, the construction they advocate could not be more expansive, for they apparently argue that Congress intended the class of permissible plaintiffs to be defined by the outermost limits of Art. III. The appellants, however, fall far short of providing "clear evidence" of a "clearly expressed legislative intention" that the unique expedited procedures of § 437h be afforded to parties other than those belonging to the three listed categories.

In fact, the section's legislative history is too brief and ambiguous to provide much solace to either side of the present controversy. When Senator Buckley introduced the section during the deliberations on the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974, he limited his explanation to the following comments "[I]t is a modification that I am sure will prove acceptable to the managers of the bill. It merely provides for the expeditious review of the constitutional questions I have raised. I am sure we will all agree that if, in fact, there is a serious question as to the constitutionality of this legislation, it is in the interest of everyone to have the question determined by the Supreme Court at the earliest possible time." 120 Cong. Rec. 10562 (1974).³

In the House, Representative Frenzel echoed this theme in responding to a question from another Member of the House about the constitutionality of the Amendments:

"Any time we pass legislation in this field we are causing constitutional doubts to be raised. I have many myself. I think the gentleman has pointed out a good one. We have done the best we could to bring out a bill which we hope may pass the constitutional test. But, we do not doubt that some questions will be raised quickly.

"I do call the attention of the gentleman to the fact that any individual under this bill has a direct method to raise these questions and to have those considered as quickly as possible by the Supreme Court." Id., at 35140 (emphasis added).

These brief remarks by two Members of Congress nearly exhaust the legislative history of the section. The appellants nevertheless suggest that these comments suffice to prove that, in passing § 437h, Congress focused solely on...