DNC loses lawsuit against Trump executive order

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a Democratic National Committee lawsuit accusing President Trump of trying to take over the Federal Election Commission and turn it into a partisan weapon.

Judge Amir Ali said the DNC was reading too much into Mr. Trump’s February executive order attempting to rein in so-called independent agencies, and asserting presidential control over their legal conclusions.

The DNC had seen in that an attempt to undermine the nonpartisan nature of the Federal Election Commission, one of the independent agencies. 

But Judge Ali said there’s no indication Mr. Trump had that in mind when he issued the order, and the FEC says it wouldn’t bow to that sort of interference anyway.

“This court’s doors are open to the parties if changed circumstances show concrete action or impact on the FEC’s or its commissioners’ independence. Absent such allegations, however, the court must dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction and therefore does so,” he said.

The DNC had asked Judge Ali, a Biden appointee to the court in Washington, to declare that the Federal Election Campaign Act was constitutional, the FEC’s legal judgment was independent of the president’s control, and part of Mr. Trump’s executive order was unlawful.

Marc Elias, a high-profile Democratic lawyer, argued the case for the DNC and other Democratic campaign committees.

He claimed the party was afraid to ask the FEC for legal guidance on campaign matters because it feared the advice would be skewed by the president’s order.

“By providing that no employee of the executive branch may advance an interpretation that contravenes the president or the attorney general’s opinion on a matter of law, the executive order purports to provide President Trump — the leader of the Republican Party — with the ability to order the FEC to take particular positions on any question of law arising in the commission’s performance of any of its duties,” Mr. Elias said.

The Trump administration said the case was misguided from the start.

It said nobody had argued the Federal Election Campaign Act was unconstitutional and the order hasn’t had any effect on the FEC at all.

“Cases and controversies are made of sterner stuff, and there is none to be found here,” argued Jeremy S.B. Newman, a Justice Department lawyer.