Common Cause v. Federal Election Com'n
| Decision Date | 15 March 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-5036,87-5036 |
| Citation | 842 F.2d 436 |
| Parties | , 56 USLW 2563 COMMON CAUSE v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Civil Action No. 83-02199).
Jonathan A. Bernstein, Atty., Federal Election Com'n, with whom Lawrence M. Noble, Gen. Counsel, and Richard B. Bader, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Federal Election Com'n, Washington, D.C., were on the brief for appellant.
Carol F. Lee, with whom Roger M. Witten, Washington, D.C., was on the brief for appellee.
Before WALD, Chief Judge, RUTH BADER GINSBURG and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the Court filed by Chief Judge WALD.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC or the Commission) appeals from a decision of the district court, see Common Cause v. FEC, 655 F.Supp. 619 (D.D.C.1986), rejecting its interpretation of a provision of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA or the Act), which prohibits the use of a candidate's name in the "name" of any unauthorized "political committee," 2 U.S.C. Sec. 432(e)(4). The FEC construes the bar as applying only to the name of the committee itself and not to the names of any fundraising projects that the committee sponsors. The Commission also objects to the court's order that it provide a statement of reasons explaining its 3-3 vote to dismiss a complaint contrary to the recommendation of the FEC General Counsel.
Concluding that the scope of Sec. 432(e)(4) is by no means free from doubt, we find that the FEC's interpretation is an entirely permissible one and reverse the district court's ruling that the section applies to all projects sponsored by a political committee. Additionally, we hold that our recent ruling in Democratic Congressional Campaign Comm. v. FEC, 831 F.2d 1131 (D.C.Cir.1987), requiring the Commission to provide a statement of reasons whenever it departs from recommendations of the General Counsel in tie-vote dismissals, must be given prospective status only; we decline to apply it retroactively in this case. Accordingly, we vacate the remand order of the district court and instruct it to enter an order dismissing Common Cause's petition for declaratory and injunctive relief.
In July, 1980, the Carter-Mondale Reelection Committee (Carter-Mondale) filed a complaint against five independent committees as well as Ronald Reagan's officially authorized campaign committee. The complaint alleged that the five committees, Americans for Change (AFC), Americans for an Effective Presidency (AEP), Fund for a Conservative Majority (FCM), North Carolina Congressional Club (NCCC)--now National Congressional Club--and National Conservative Political Action Club (NCPAC) impermissibly coordinated expenditures with Ronald Reagan's authorized campaign committee and thereby exceeded statutory limits on campaign contributions. See 2 U.S.C. Sec. 431(17) (defining "independent expenditure"); Sec. 441a(a)(7)(B)(i) (); Sec. 441a(a)(1) and (2) (). Carter-Mondale also claimed that the committees had violated Sec. 432(e)(4)'s ban against the use of a candidate's name in the name of an unauthorized committee by using the name "Reagan" in the titles of their fund-raising projects on public direct-mail solicitations.
The FEC General Counsel recommended that the Commission find "reason to believe" that a statutory violation had taken place and investigate the coordination charges against all five independent committees. The Commission initially agreed to the recommendation by a 4-2 vote. One Commissioner, Frank P. Reiche, however, took a different position with respect to two committees (NCCC and AEP), voting not to find "reason to believe" that they had engaged in such coordination. His unexplained shift caused the 3-3 deadlock among the Commissioners that resulted in a dismissal of the coordination claims against these two parties. 1
The General Counsel suggested further investigation of the allegations against AFC, FCM, NCCC and NCPAC, with respect to the Sec. 432(e)(4) claims. By a 4-2 vote the Commission found "reason to believe" a violation had taken place and ordered further inquiry. 2
After an extensive investigation of the Carter-Mondale claims, 3 the General Counsel recommended that the Commission take no additional action on the coordination claims, concluding that further inquiry would probably not lead to evidence of direct coordination by any of the three unauthorized committees still under investigation. J.A. at 286, 292, 298.
Regarding the Sec. 432(e)(4) claims, the evidence showed that in several campaign communications the unauthorized committees included the name of candidate Reagan in letterheads and return addresses and, in some of the communications, asked for contributions with checks made payable to accounts bearing Reagan's name. For example, AFC and NCCC used the designation "Americans for Reagan," FCM, "Citizens for Reagan in 80," and NCPAC, "Ronald Reagan Victory Fund."
According to the committees, however, these names referred only to fundraising projects and not to the committees themselves. All of the mailings, with the possible exception of two from FCM, see J.A. at 222, 249, included the disclaimers required by 2 U.S.C. Sec. 441d(a), indicating both the name of the political committee that had paid for the advertisement or solicitation and whether the communication itself had been authorized by any candidate.
Under these circumstances, the General Counsel recommended that the Commission find no probable cause to believe that a violation had occurred. Section 432(e)(4) prohibits the use of a candidate's name in the name of a political committee, but not in other parts of the material that it publishes. The unauthorized committee had used the name "Reagan" only in reference to fundraising projects, not in the names of the independent political committees themselves. Hence, the General Counsel opined there was no violation of Sec. 432(e)(4). On the General Counsel's recommendation, a 4-2 Commission majority voted to take no further action on the Sec. 432(e)(4) claims.
On August 1, 1983, Common Cause filed suit in federal district court, arguing that the Commission's ultimate dismissal of the coordination and the Sec. 432(e)(4) claims that it had investigated and its failure to give reasons for declining to investigate the coordination charges against AEP and NCCC were "contrary to law." 2 U.S.C. Sec. 437g(a)(8)(C).
The district court reversed the agency on the ground that the FEC's reading of Sec. 432(e)(4) defied "common sense":
The political machinery is powered by names and what those names symbolize and identify. Therefore, whatever names the committees presented to the public for identification must also constitute a "name" within the meaning of section 432(e)(4).
Common Cause v. FEC, 655 F.Supp. at 621.
The court also ruled that the agency must explain why it dismissed by a 3-3 vote claims that the General Counsel recommended for further investigation. The court concluded that such a statement of reasons was necessary to enable it to review intelligently the Commission's determination. Id. at 622-23.
The Commission appeals from both rulings. 4
Our first task in reviewing an agency's interpretation of a statute committed to its enforcement is to examine the legislation itself, using traditional tools of statutory construction, to ascertain if its intent is clear. NLRB v. United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 23, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 413, 98 L.Ed.2d 429 (1987); INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987); see also Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-43 at n. 9, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2781 n. 9, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). Clear congressional intent derived from the plain language or legislative history of the statute dictates our result. However, where "the statute and its history are silent or ambiguous with respect to a specific issue," the agency's construction, if reasonable, must ordinarily be honored. Chevron v. NRDC, 467 U.S. at 843, 104 S.Ct. at 2781. Neither the plain language of Sec. 432(e)(4) nor its legislative history unambiguously resolves the dispute before us, though on balance we believe the Commission has the better of the argument.
Our "inquiry focuses first on the language and structure of the statute itself." American Mining Congress v. EPA, 824 F.2d 1177, 1182 (D.C.Cir.1987). The bare text of Sec. 432(e)(4) could conceivably accommodate either the construction adopted by the FEC or that proposed by Common Cause:
The name of each authorized committee shall include the name of the candidate who authorized such committee.... In the case of any political committee which is not an authorized committee, such political committee shall not include the name of any candidate in its name.
The Commission interprets "name" in Sec. 432(e)(4) to refer only to the official or formal name under which a political committee must register. 5 Following this interpretation, a political committee has only one "name," even though it may rely on various "project" names to help collect money and achieve its other goals. This view obviously comports with the plain language of Sec. 432(e)(4), which refers to the "name" of a political committee in the singular. It is also consistent with the avowed purpose of Sec. 432(e)(4), to eliminate confusion; each committee has only one official name, which identifies it immediately either as an authorized or unauthorized committee, 6...
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