A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Wednesday that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) [official website] “acted ‘arbitrarily and capriciously'” in enacting rules for presidential debates. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the motion for summary judgment filed by plaintiffs, including the Green Party and the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) [party websites], and ordered the FEC to review the plaintiffs’ complaint that a 15 percent threshold support requirement on third-party candidates to participate in presidential debates was “arbitrary and capricious.” Specifically, the complaint included allegations that the FEC violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) [text]. The court added the FEC failed to articulate its analysis concerning the plaintiffs’ complaint and “stuck its head in the sand and ignored the evidence that its lack of rulemaking and lack of enforcement may be undermining the stated purpose of its regulations and the Act.” However, the court stopped short of framing its own rule or forcing the FEC to promulgate the rules requested by the plaintiffs, stating: “this court will not take the extraordinary step of ordering promulgation of a new rule, but instead will permit the FEC a second opportunity to give the Petition the consideration it requires.” Chutkan gave the FEC 60 days to issue a new decision consistent with her opinion in this case. The LNC welcomed the decision, stating: “We hope that this ruling will get the FEC to start following and enforcing the law fairly.”

The presidential election cycle has been riddled with controversy from the start and is part of the larger problems surrounding voting rights and gerrymandering, which have become increasingly important issues over the past year. Last month the US Supreme Court [official website] blocked [JURIST report] a ruling ordering the redrawing of the congressional district map and special elections to be held in North Carolina. This came after the Supreme Court heard arguments [JURIST report] in racial gerrymandering cases from Virginia and North Carolina in December. In September several organizations filed a federal lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging Georgia’s voter registration system. In April the Supreme Court unanimously upheld [JURIST report] an Arizona commission’s decisions regarding the redistricting of voting districts in the state.