IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD, PETER 

ACKERMAN, GREEN PARTY OF THE 

UNITED STATES, and LIBERTARIAN 

NATIONAL COMMITTEE, INC.

Plaintiffs,

v.

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

Defendant.

Civil Action No.: 15-cv-1397 (TSC)

PLAINTIFFS LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD, PETER ACKERMAN, GREEN PARTY 

OF THE UNITED STATES, AND LIBERTARIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE, INC.’S 

REPLY MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN FURTHER SUPPORT 

OF THEIR MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND IN OPPOSITION TO 

DEFENDANT’S CROSS-MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Case 1:15-cv-01397-TSC Document 97 Filed 11/10/17 Page 1 of 31
i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES .......................................................................................................... ii

ARGUMENT.................................................................................................................................. 2

I. THE FEC RADICALLY OVERSTATES ITS ENTITLEMENT TO 

DEFERENCE..................................................................................................................2

II. THE DISMISSAL OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINTS WAS 

ARBITRARY, CAPRICIOUS AND CONTRARY TO LAW.......................................5

A. The FEC Failed To Articulate The Standard It Used ....................................... 5

B. The FEC Did Not Carefully Consider The Evidence ....................................... 6

1. The FEC Arbitrarily and Capriciously Disregarded The CPD’s 

Partisanship............................................................................................6

2. The FEC Arbitrarily and Capriciously Misconstrued The 

Expert Reports .....................................................................................11

a. Clifford Young........................................................................ 11

b. Douglas Schoen ...................................................................... 16

3. The FEC Failed To Meaningfully Consider The Evidence 

Against The CPD Directors.................................................................18

4. The FEC Arbitrarily And Capriciously Concluded That The 

CPD’s Polling Criterion Was Objective ............................................. 19

III. THE FEC’S REFUSAL TO OPEN A RULEMAKING WAS ARBITRARY 

AND CAPRICIOUS......................................................................................................21

A. The Treatment Of The Young Report Was Arbitrary And Capricious .......... 21

B. The Treatment Of The Schoen Report Was Arbitrary And Capricious.......... 22

CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................. 24

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TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

Page(s)

Cases

Antosh v. FEC, 

599 F. Supp. 850 (D.D.C. 1984)............................................................................................. 2, 3

Arizona Pub. Serv. Co. v. United States, 

742 F.2d 644 (D.C. Cir. 1984).................................................................................................... 3

Atkins v. Virginia, 

536 U.S. 304 (2002).................................................................................................................. 12

Beyond Nuclear v. U.S. Dep’t of Energy, 

233 F. Supp. 3d 40 (D.D.C. 2017)................................................................................ 11, 12, 17

BNSF Ry. Co. v. Surface Transp. Bd., 

741 F.3d 163 (D.C. Cir. 2014).................................................................................................. 15

City of Kansas City, Mo. v. Dep’t of Hous. & Urban Dev., 

923 F.2d 188 (D.C. Cir. 1991).................................................................................................. 13

City of Los Angeles v. U.S. Dep’t of Transp., 

165 F.3d 972 (D.C. Cir. 1999).................................................................................................... 4

Combat Veterans for Cong. Political Action Comm. v. FEC, 

795 F.3d 151 (D.C. Cir. 2015).................................................................................................... 3

Decker v. Nw. Def. Cent., 

568 U.S. 597 (2013)................................................................................................................ 4. 5

FEC v. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Comm., 

454 U.S. 27 (1981).............................................................................................................. 3, 4, 5

Greater Boston Television Corp. v. FCC, 

444 F.2d 841 (D.C. Cir. 1970)................................................................................................ 3, 6

Hagelin v. FEC,

411 F.3d 237 (D.C. Cir. 2005).................................................................................................... 4

Kelly v. United States, 

34 F. Supp. 2d 8 (D.D.C. 1998).......................................................................................... 17, 24

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Kent Cnty., Del. Levy Court v. U.S. EPA, 

963 F.2d 391 (D.C. Cir. 1992).................................................................................................. 11

Level the Playing Field v. FEC, 

232 F. Supp. 3d 130 (D.D.C. 2017)................................................................................... passim

Liljeberg v. Health Servs. Acquisition Corp.,

486 U.S. 847 (1988).................................................................................................................... 8

Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass’n of U.S., Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 

463 U.S. 29 (1983).............................................................................................................. 10, 13

Nat’l Coal. Against The Misuse of Pesticides v. Thomas,

809 F.2d 875 (D.C. Cir. 1987).................................................................................................. 14

Nat’l Mar. Safety Ass’n v. Occupational Safety & Health Admin., 

649 F.3d 743 (D.C. Cir. 2011).................................................................................................. 17

Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc. v. SEC, 

606 F.2d 1031 (D.C. Cir. 1979).............................................................................................. 3, 4

Resolute Forest Prod., Inc. v. U.S. Dep’t of Agric., 

187 F. Supp. 3d 100 (D.D.C. 2016)............................................................................................ 3

Shays v. FEC, 

337 F. Supp. 2d 28 (D.D.C. 2004)............................................................................................ 25

Shays v. FEC, 

340 F. Supp. 2d 39 (D.D.C. 2004)............................................................................................ 25

Shays v. FEC, 

414 F.3d 76 (D.C. Cir. 2005).................................................................................................... 25

Shays v. FEC, 

508 F. Supp. 2d 10 (D.D.C. 2007)............................................................................................ 25

Shays v. FEC, 

528 F.3d 914 (D.C. Cir. 2008).................................................................................................. 25

Sierra Club v. Salazar, 

177 F. Supp. 3d 512 (D.D.C. 2016)................................................................................... passim

Stuttering Found. of Am. v. Springer, 

498 F. Supp. 2d 203 (D.D.C. 2007).......................................................................................... 18

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Tenn. Gas Pipeline Co. v. FERC, 

824 F.2d 78 (D.C. Cir. 1987)...................................................................................................... 2

Statutes

11 C.F.R. § 110.13...................................................................................................................... 4, 9

11 C.F.R. § 110.13(a)(1)................................................................................................................. 5

11 C.F.R. § 110.13(c).................................................................................................................... 21

28 U.S.C. § 455............................................................................................................................... 8

52 U.S.C. § 30118(a) ...................................................................................................................... 9

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If there were any doubts about the arbitrariness of the FEC’s post-remand decisions, its 

summary judgment brief puts them to rest. The FEC has abandoned large swaths of the flawed 

reasoning in those decisions that it now realizes there is no way to justify. Examples abound; to 

provide just one, the FEC does not even try to explain why it rotely accepted one director’s claim 

that when she called the CPD “bi-partisan,” she really meant “non-partisan,” even though these 

words have opposite meanings. The FEC now pretends that it never relied on this frivolous

claim. The FEC also concedes that the post-remand decisions mischaracterized key evidence in 

numerous ways. It is now undisputed, for example, that, contrary to what the post-remand 

decisions repeatedly said, the FEC falsified the results of its Westlaw news analysis; that almost 

every criticism of the Young report was based upon a mischaracterization of his data or 

conclusions; that making two appearances per month on C-SPAN does not qualify as “extensive 

media coverage”; and that Gary Johnson did not reach the 60-80% name recognition threshold. 

Because the decisions themselves lack any defensible reasoning, the FEC has concocted a 

number of improper post-hoc justifications that are arbitrary and capricious as a matter of law. 

To the extent the FEC does try to justify the post-remand decisions, it largely regurgitates what 

they said without acknowledging, let alone addressing, the glaring problems Plaintiffs identified.

Enough is enough. The time has come to hold the FEC accountable for its derelict 

oversight of the CPD. For three decades the CPD has exercised unchecked power to decide who 

may participate in the presidential debates. It has abused that power by erecting insurmountable 

obstacles that ensure only Republican and Democratic candidates will be invited. In so doing, 

the CPD repeatedly violated FECA’s restriction on corporate campaign contributions, and 

funneled millions of dollars in illegal contributions to the Republican and Democratic parties and 

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their presidential nominees. The FEC’s frivolous post-remand decisions are just the latest 

example of its unwillingness to enforce its own regulations against the partisan CPD. 

Since the FEC has repeatedly refused to hold the CPD accountable, this Court should 

authorize Plaintiffs to sue the CPD and direct the FEC to open a rulemaking. Any lesser remedy

will be fruitless, given the FEC’s long history of bias in favor of the CPD, laid bare yet again 

here. The CPD will plainly view any remedy putting the FEC in control of the next steps as a 

license to continue violating FECA, since it knows it can count on the FEC’s complicity. It will 

then continue to prevent the American people from hearing from any candidates other than those 

anointed by the two major parties and their corporate sponsors. 

Plaintiffs’ summary judgement motion should be granted, and the FEC’s motion denied. 

I. THE FEC RADICALLY OVERSTATES ITS ENTITLEMENT TO DEFERENCE

The FEC goes out of its way to minimize the Court’s role in reviewing the post-remand 

decisions, as if their additional girth somehow immunizes them from review. (See, e.g., FEC Br.

18-21). The agency glosses over this Court’s explicit requirement that the FEC “t[ake] a hard 

look at the evidence” and conduct a “thorough” inquiry that is “searching[,] careful” and 

“thoughtful.” Level the Playing Field v. FEC, 232 F. Supp. 3d 130, 140, 148 (D.D.C. 2017)

(“LPF”) (emphasis supplied). It disregards the command to the agency to “take into 

consideration all available information concerning the alleged wrongdoing.” Antosh v. FEC, 599 

F. Supp. 850, 855 (D.D.C. 1984) (emphasis supplied) (internal quotations omitted). The FEC 

likewise refuses to acknowledge that an agency acts arbitrarily and capriciously where, as here, it

“misrepresent[s]” the facts, ignores “the relevant data,” “cherry-pick[s]” the data on which it 

relies, or uses “non sequitur[s]” and “post-hoc rationalization[s]” to justify its dismissal of an 

administrative complaint or rulemaking petition. Tenn. Gas Pipeline Co. v. FERC, 824 F.2d 78, 

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84 (D.C. Cir. 1987); Arizona Pub. Serv. Co. v. United States, 742 F.2d 644, 651 (D.C. Cir. 

1984); Sierra Club v. Salazar, 177 F. Supp. 3d 512, 533, 540 (D.D.C. 2016); Resolute Forest 

Prod., Inc. v. U.S. Dep’t of Agric., 187 F. Supp. 3d 100, 122 (D.D.C. 2016). Put simply, even 

under ordinary principles governing judicial review of an agency decision, the Court cannot 

“meekly” accept “administrative pronouncements,” Antosh, 599 F. Supp. at 853 (internal 

quotations omitted), and “[t]he deference owed to [an agency] cannot be allowed to slip into a 

judicial inertia,” Greater Boston Television Corp. v. FCC, 444 F.2d 841, 850 (D.C. Cir. 1970) 

(internal quotations omitted). 

And this is no ordinary case. The FEC does not dispute that “[t]he stringency of [the] 

review, in a given case, depends upon analysis of a number of factors,” and “[m]ore exacting 

scrutiny will be particularly useful when for some reason the presumption of agency regularity is 

rebutted.” Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc. v. SEC, 606 F.2d 1031, 1050 & n.23 (D.C. Cir. 1979). 

As explained (Pl. Br. 18-19), the FEC should receive no deference under the circumstances here. 

An “inherently bipartisan” agency, the FEC has the same partisan loyalties as the CPD, so it is

incapable of effectively policing the CPD’s partisan bias. FEC v. Democratic Senatorial 

Campaign Comm., 454 U.S. 27, 37 (1981) (“DSCC”).

1

 That explains why the FEC has spent the 

past 17 years rubber-stamping the CPD’s blatant partisanship. In case after case, it interpreted 

the regulations “contrary to the[ir] plain text” to shield the CPD from meaningful scrutiny. That

 1 This is not merely “Plaintiffs’ characterization,” as the FEC suggests (at 22). Both the 

Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit have recognized the FEC’s bipartisanship. DSCC, 

454 U.S. at 37; Combat Veterans for Cong. Political Action Comm. v. FEC, 795 F.3d 

151, 153 (D.C. Cir. 2015). The FEC says commissioner Steven Walther is independent, 

but he was a “Democratic pick[] for the bipartisan six-member commission” who 

previously served as the “spokesman” for Democratic Senator Harry Reid. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/

AR2005121601717.html; 1998 WLNR 6644529. 

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gave this Court “reason to suspect that the agency’s interpretation does not reflect [its] fair and 

considered judgment.” LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 140. Its original decisions were patently 

deficient; its post-remand decisions reached the same result and only via a host of misstatements, 

mischaracterizations, and outright lies which the FEC now does not even try to defend.

The FEC claims it is entitled to deference for two reasons, neither of which has merit. 

First, it relies upon cases (at 21-23) in which only one of the numerous factors set forth above 

were present. See, e.g., Hagelin v. FEC, 411 F.3d 237, 242-43 (D.C. Cir. 2005) (shared bias 

between agency and litigant, by itself, did not warrant departure from ordinary deference); City 

of Los Angeles v. U.S. Dep’t of Transp., 165 F.3d 972, 977-78 (D.C. Cir. 1999) (applying 

ordinary deference where agency reached same result on remand). None of these cases involve 

the confluence of factors described above which, when taken together, conclusively “rebut[]”

“the presumption of agency regularity.” Natural Res. Def. Council, 606 F.2d at 1050 n.23.

Second, the FEC argues that “the consistency of the FEC’s view counsels for, not against, 

deference,” citing Decker v. Nw. Def. Cent., 568 U.S. 597 (2013) and DSCC, 454 U.S. at 37. 

(FEC Br. 23) (emphasis in original). But these cases afforded Auer deference to an agency’s 

consistent “interpret[ation] [of] its own regulation” because that interpretation was 

“permissible.” Decker, 568 U.S. at 613; accord DSCC, 454 U.S. at 36, 39-42 (deferring to 

FEC’s “permissible construction of the Act”).2

 Here, the FEC misinterpreted 11 C.F.R. § 110.13

for 17 years by “appl[ying] a ‘control’ standard that is contrary to the plain text of the 

regulation.” LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 140; Pl. Br. 8-9. Moreover, the FEC’s misconstruction of 

Section 110.13 just so happened to favor the exact same party (the CPD) in every single case 

 2 For reasons explained in the prior summary judgment motion (Dkt. 37 at 30 n.15), 

plaintiffs also challenge the continuing validity of the Auer doctrine.

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brought against it. Neither Decker nor DSCC suggests that deference is owed to an agency that 

misinterprets a regulation for nearly two decades in order to avoid meaningfully scrutinizing the

bias of a party whose partiality the agency itself shares.

II. THE DISMISSAL OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINTS WAS 

ARBITRARY, CAPRICIOUS AND CONTRARY TO LAW

A. The FEC Failed To Articulate The Standard It Used

The FEC still refuses to articulate the standard it used to determine whether the CPD 

“endorse[s], support[s], or oppose[s] political candidates or political parties.” 11 C.F.R. 

§ 110.13(a)(1). The Factual and Legal Analysis II purported to apply the “plain meaning” of 

these words without explaining what the plain meaning is. (Pl. Br. 20). The FEC’s brief does 

the same thing, and merely regurgitates the deficient reasoning in the Factual and Legal Analysis 

II. (FEC Br. 24-25). The FEC thus continues to ignore this Court’s admonition that the bare 

recitation of the regulation’s language will not satisfy its obligation to “articulate what standard it 

used to determine whether the CPD” complied with the regulation. LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 138.

The FEC readily acknowledges that, just like its original decision, the Factual and Legal 

Analysis II relies upon Buchanan and the prior actions. (FEC Br. 26). This Court previously 

found that the FEC’s citations of “its past dismissals of administrative complaints involving the 

CPD” and “Buchanan” “strongly implie[d]” reliance on the improper “control” standard. Id. at 

138-39. Yet the FEC provides no alternative explanation for why it again relied on the prior 

dismissals in the post-remand decision; why its decision expressly invokes Buchanan language 

requiring evidence that the parties “influence[d]” the CPD; or why it elsewhere relies upon the 

absence of control to justify dismissing Plaintiffs’ administrative complaints. (Pl. Br. 20). The 

FEC’s inability to provide any alternative explanation for its continued reliance upon these 

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arguments shows that it continues to apply the “control” standard, which contravenes the “plain 

text of the regulation” and is therefore contrary to law. LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 140. 

B. The FEC Did Not Carefully Consider The Evidence

1. The FEC Arbitrarily and Capriciously Disregarded The CPD’s 

Partisanship

The FEC simply abandons many of its post-remand decision’s arguments about the 

CPD’s partisanship. For example, one reason we know the CPD is partisan is that CPD itself 

said so: it declared that “future [debates] should be principally and jointly sponsored and 

conducted by the Republican and Democratic” parties, and that “all future presidential debates” 

would be between those two parties’ nominees. (AR2244, AR2249-50). The Factual and Legal 

Analysis II inexplicably denied that these partisan statements “constitute[d] an endorsement of, 

or support for, the Democratic or Republican Parties.” (AR7216; Pl. Br. 21-22). The FEC’s 

summary judgment submission makes no attempt to defend that frivolous argument. Nor does 

the FEC even try to explain why its post-remand decision accepted Vucanovich’s frivolous claim 

that when she called the CPD “bipartisan,” she really meant to say it was nonpartisan. (AR7216; 

Pl. Br. 22). The FEC’s inability to defend positions in the decisions itself demonstrates its 

failure to “genuinely engage[] in reasoned decision-making.” Greater Boston, 444 F.2d at 841.

That conclusion is further supported by what the agency does say in attempting to 

rationalize the positions it took in the Factual and Legal Analysis II: (1) that every partisan act by 

the CPD’s leadership supposedly was undertaken in a “personal capacity”; (2) that Fahrenkopf’s 

2015 admission of the CPD’s partisanship is not really an admission; and (3) that the CPD’s 

belated disclosure of unenforceable “policies” which the CPD’s leadership openly violate are 

somehow sufficient to police the CPD’s partisanship.

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1. The FEC argues that the CPD directors’ partisan activities cannot be attributed to the 

CPD itself. (FEC Br. 31-34). Yet the FEC disregards the numerous admissions by these same 

directors that the CPD itself is partisan. (See, e.g., (AR2252, 3099) (Fahrenkopf’s admissions 

that the CPD will “not likely . . . look with favor on including third-party candidates in the 

debates,” and that it has a “system” according to which “we . . . go with the two leading 

candidates” from “the two political part[ies]”); AR3095 (Alan Simpson’s admission that the 

CPD consists of “Democrats and Republicans . . . that are interested in the American people 

finding out more about the two major candidates—not about independent candidates who mess 

things up”); id. (David Norcross and Barbara Vucanovich’s admissions that the CPD is “not 

really nonpartisan. It’s bi-partisan”)). 

As explained (Pl. Br. 5-7, 21-24), the FEC’s position blinks reality. The CPD was 

created by the Republican and Democratic parties for the express purpose of asserting partisan 

control of the debates. It has always been run by diehard partisans with deep ties to the major

parties and their causes, who have repeatedly endorsed and contributed hundreds of thousands of 

dollars to those parties’ candidates, and funneled hundreds of thousands of additional 

contributions to their officials as lobbyists. And the CPD employs an exclusionary polling 

criterion which, unsurprisingly, only Republican and Democratic candidates have ever satisfied. 

The FEC disregards all of this. Instead, to justify its conclusion that the CPD

leadership’s numerous partisan acts were merely “personal” acts by the individuals who 

perpetrated them, the FEC (1) cites four FEC opinions issued in unrelated matters that did not 

involve the CPD or the regulations at issue here; (2) draws a purported analogy to the law of 

recusal; and (3) claims that “the personal lives of the [CPD’s] agents or employees” cannot be 

“restrict[ed].” (FEC Br. 33-35). These arguments are frivolous. 

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According to the FEC, “individuals may wear ‘multiple hats’ to represent the interests of 

multiple people or entities at different times.” (FEC Br. 33). But the opinions it cites are 

inapposite, because they do not address whether an organization like the CPD can somehow 

avoid the partisan taint of its avowedly partisan leadership. They instead involve irrelevant

scenarios, like whether a sitting U.S. Senator should be permitted to campaign for governor, or 

whether someone who raised federal campaign funds may later fundraise for a state party. 

(Advisory Ops. 2005-02, 2003-10; accord Advisory Op. 2007-05 (whether Congressional staffer 

could fundraise on behalf of state party); Advisory Op. 1984-12 (whether regents of American 

College of Allergists could belong to PAC)). Moreover, these “opinions” are just that—opinions 

of the FEC, the same organization that its own former chair admits has repeatedly allowed 

“major [FECA] violations” to be “swept under the rug.”3

The FEC’s recusal analogy is even more puzzling. The agency suggests that the CPD is 

like a judge asked to recuse herself because of favoritism toward a litigant. (FEC Br. 33-34). 

But this analogy directly undermines the FEC’s position. Recusal would obviously be warranted 

if a judge had declared his or her allegiance to a litigant, spent decades advocating for its 

interests, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to its affiliates, used his or her position as a 

lobbyist to funnel hundreds of thousands of additional dollars to them, stated publicly that the

judge would not “look with favor” on the litigant’s opponents who, in the judge’s view, only 

“mess things up,” and had consistently ruled in that same litigant’s favor in multiple cases 

spanning two decades. See 28 U.S.C. § 455 (recusal mandated if “impartiality might reasonably 

be questioned” or judge has “prejudice” in favor of “a party”); accord Liljeberg v. Health Servs. 

 3 https://www.fec.gov/resources/about-fec/commissioners/ravel/statements/ravelreport_

feb2017.pdf. 

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Acquisition Corp., 486 U.S. 847 (1988). For similar reasons, the CPD should have “recused” 

itself from the presidential debates long ago.

Finally, contrary to the FEC and CPD arguments (Dkt. 95 at 7-8), the individual rights of 

the CPD’s directors are not in jeopardy. The directors are permitted under the First Amendment 

to run a partisan debate-staging organization, as they have for thirty years. FECA, however, 

prohibits such an organization from accepting corporate contributions. 52 U.S.C. § 30118(a); 11 

C.F.R. 110.13. As this Court recognized, only a debate-staging organization that is 

“nonpartisan,” does not “endorse, support or oppose” the parties, and uses “objective” criteria 

may pay for the debates using corporate money. LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 135. That is why 

Plaintiffs brought this action: not to advance an “agenda,” as the FEC claims (at 2), but to hold 

the CPD accountable for accepting corrupt corporate contributions despite its failure to satisfy 

FECA’s requirements for a debate-staging organization. Indeed, it is noteworthy that the CPD’s 

website recently stopped identifying any of its corporate sponsors; we know nothing about which 

companies used the CPD as a conduit to buy influence with President Trump. It is the CPD that

for thirty years has trampled the speech of independent candidates that it shut out of the debates, 

not to mention the rights of the American people not to have their presidential candidates handselected by an unelected, unaccountable and illegal debate-staging organization. 

2. Of the numerous partisan acts Plaintiffs identified, the FEC’s brief addresses in detail 

only Fahrenopf’s 2015 interview (see Pl. Br. 22-23). (FEC Br. 32-33). Again, the FEC ignores

Plaintiffs’ arguments about this interview. Its brief, parroting the Factual And Legal Analysis II, 

characterizes Fahrenkopf’s statement as “an assertion of historical fact,” without acknowledging 

that (1) he was responding to a question about “the prospects” of more than two participants in 

future presidential debates, and (2) he answered that question in the present tense, not the past 

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tense: “we . . . primarily go with” the Republican and Democratic candidates. (AR3099). That 

Fahrenkopf mentioned Ross Perot later in his answer does not somehow transform this 

admission into “an assertion of historical fact,” particularly since Perot himself would not have 

satisfied the CPD’s current polling criterion (Dkt. 76 ¶ 52, Dkt. 82 ¶ 52), and was only invited to 

the 1992 debate “at the request of the two major parties.” LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 144.

3. The FEC largely ignores the reasons the CPD’s alleged “policies” are meaningless and 

the agency’s reliance upon them was arbitrary and capricious. (See Pl. Br. 24-26). It is now 

undisputed that neither of these policies is even enforceable. Nor does the FEC deny that even if 

they were enforced, the alleged “policies” would still permit the vast majority of the partisan 

conduct at issue. The FEC offers no explanation for why it nevertheless relied upon the alleged 

“policies,” even though the CPD withheld them from the FEC and the FEC therefore has no idea 

what, if anything, they actually say. The FEC ignores the amicus brief submitted by leaders of 

the non-profit community who show that the CPD’s supposed “policies” violate corporate 

governance norms, and who are appalled at the FEC’s lack of oversight. (Dkt. 88). Nor does the 

FEC address the curious timing of the CPD’s disclosure of these alleged policies, or attempt to 

explain why, if they really do exist, the CPD never thought to mention them until this Court 

remanded the actions to the FEC earlier this year. For these reasons alone, it was “implausible,” 

and thus “arbitrary and capricious,” for the FEC to rely on the “policies.” Motor Vehicle Mfrs. 

Ass’n of U.S., Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43 (1983).

All the FEC’s brief does is complain that the evidence showing that the CPD’s directors 

violated the alleged “policies” is “outside the record.” (FEC Br. 34-35). But that is only 

because, when the CPD disclosed the “policies” to the FEC on remand without Plaintiffs’ 

knowledge, the FEC never bothered to check the CPD’s compliance, and thus omitted the 

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repeated violations from its post-remand decision.4

 Now the FEC seeks to capitalize upon its 

own dereliction by claiming that this Court, like the FEC, should willfully blind itself to those 

violations. That is not the law. Because “the agency deliberately or negligently excluded 

documents that may have been adverse to its decision,” the Court should consider those

documents. Beyond Nuclear v. U.S. Dep’t of Energy, 233 F. Supp. 3d. 40, 48 (D.D.C. 2017)

(internal quotations omitted); accord Kent Cnty., Del. Levy Court v. U.S. E.P.A., 963 F.2d 391, 

395-96 (D.C. Cir. 1992). 

2. The FEC Arbitrarily and Capriciously Misconstrued The Expert 

Reports

a. Clifford Young 

Young showed that a candidate needs at least 60-80% name recognition among the 

“American public” in order to potentially achieve 15% in the polls. Young calculated the precise 

correlation between name recognition, on the one hand, and vote share, on the other, in arriving 

at the 60-80% range. (AR2502-05 ¶¶ 24-32). Young depicted these results graphically in the 

chart below, with data points demonstrating how vote share increases with name recognition:

 

 4 See, e.g., 2017 WLNR 13678202; http://bangordailynews.com/2016/04/01/opinion/

contributors/olympia-snowe-says-donald-trump-is-damaging-the-republican-partybrand/; http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=91621.

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12

(AR2504). 

The FEC presents no evidence undermining these calculations. It offers no competing 

study or opposing expert, let alone one relying upon different data or showing that the name 

recognition minimum is lower than 60-80%. Nor does the FEC identify any candidate with less 

than 60% name recognition who ever reached 15% in the polls. The FEC instead focuses

exclusively on other factors that may cause even a “recognizable” candidate to “be unpopular.” 

(FEC Br. 37). But these factors actually undermine the FEC’s position, because they show that it 

is more difficult to satisfy the 15% rule than even Young and Schoen suggest. As these experts 

showed, it is hard enough—indeed, virtually impossible—for an independent candidate to 

achieve the name recognition needed to poll at 15%. By conceding that other factors make it 

even harder to attain a 15% vote share, the FEC itself provides yet another reason why the 15% 

rule unlawfully excludes independent candidates because they could never hope to satisfy it.

The FEC also argues (at 37, 39) that Gary “Johnson reached 63% name recognition,” 

ignoring the reasons why that is neither true nor relevant. (See Pl. Br. 27). Specifically, the FEC 

does not dispute that Young’s analysis requires 60-80% name recognition among “the American 

public,” of which registered voters are merely a subgroup. (AR2502-05 ¶¶ 24-32; FEC Br. 37-

38). Nor does the FEC dispute that even in the “YouGov” poll it cites, Johnson’s name 

recognition among “the American public” was well below 60%, and was even lower (36-37%) in 

the two polls the FEC conveniently omitted from its decision.

5

 (Pl. Br. 27). Put simply, 

 5 The FEC argues that these polls are outside the record, but this Court should consider 

them because they are documents “adverse to [the FEC’s] decision” that the FEC 

“deliberately or negligently excluded” from its analysis, Beyond Nuclear, 233 F. Supp. 3d 

at 48, or because the Court can take judicial notice of public opinion polls, Atkins v. 

Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 316 n.21 (2002). Plaintiffs’ response to the FEC’s motion to 

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“[a]gency action based on a factual premise that is flatly contradicted by the agency’s own 

record does not constitute reasoned administrative decisionmaking, and cannot survive review 

under the arbitrary and capricious standard.” City of Kansas City, Mo. v. Dep’t of Hous. & 

Urban Dev., 923 F.2d 188, 194 (D.C. Cir. 1991).

Nor does the FEC even try to show why Johnson’s name recognition would matter to 

Young’s analysis. As explained above (see also Pl. Br. 27), Young never said that name 

recognition guarantees vote share; it is merely a necessary condition that will not be sufficient if 

other factors lower the candidate’s popularity. Thus, even if Johnson surpassed the 60% name 

recognition threshold, his failure to poll at 15% in no way undermines Young’s conclusions. 

Young also showed that polling error fundamentally disfavors independents by creating 

the risk that they will be wrongfully excluded from the debates. (AR2516-18 ¶¶ 59-68). As 

explained (Pl. Br. 27-29), the FEC arbitrarily and capriciously rejected this conclusion by (1) 

misrepresenting the CPD’s stated justification for the polling criterion; (2) observing that the

criterion is “just as likely to result in overinclusion of candidates shy of the 15 percent 

threshold,” without explaining why that matters; and (3) ignoring the corrections Young made 

for the difference between gubernatorial and presidential data. (AR7231-32). The FEC now 

largely abandons these positions and replaces them with equally frivolous and improper “post 

hoc rationalizations.” It “is well-established that an agency’s actions must be upheld, if at all, on 

the basis articulated” in the agency’s decision. State Farm, 463 U.S. at 50.

First, the Factual and Legal Analysis II claimed that the “CPD does not purport to use the 

polls as predictors of what will occur on Election Day, but as a reliable measure of candidates’ 

 

strike is detailed in their opposition to that motion. Although the motion lacks merit, 

Plaintiffs should prevail on summary judgment even if it is granted, because the record 

evidence on its own amply demonstrates that the FEC acted arbitrarily and capriciously. 

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support at a given moment in September.” (AR7231). But that is false. (Pl. Br. 28). In the very 

materials the CPD supplied to the FEC, on which the FEC purported to rely, the CPD explained 

that “[t]he purpose of the [polling] criteria is to identify those candidates . . . who have a realistic 

chance of being elected President of the United States.” (AR7114) (emphasis supplied). 

Now the FEC takes the following position: “[P]laintiffs’ attempt to draw out a conflict . . 

. between whether a candidate is leading at the time of the debates in September, on the one 

hand, and whether a candidate has a realistic chance of becoming president, on the other, hardly 

demonstrates arbitrariness given the close overlap between those candidate groups.” (FEC Br. 

38). But it was the FEC, and not Plaintiffs, that drew this distinction in the first place. 

(AR7231). The Factual and Legal Analysis II claimed it was “problematic” that “Young’s 

metric for polling error appears to be based on the difference between the poll and the actual 

results on Election Day” rather than “candidates’ support at a given moment in September.” 

(Id.). Now the FEC not only admits that that there is nothing “problematic” about this, but that

the distinction is meaningless, because of the “close overlap” between “candidate[s] [who are] 

leading at the time of the debates in September” and “candidate[s] [who have] a realistic chance 

of becoming president.”6

 (FEC Br. 38). The agency’s “about-face is inexplicable and, under 

well-settled principles of law, stands condemned as arbitrary and capricious.” Nat’l Coal. 

Against The Misuse of Pesticides v. Thomas, 809 F.2d 875, 884 (D.C. Cir. 1987).

 6 The FEC suggests (at 38) that this aspect of its decision was based upon a 2014 

declaration of Frank Newport, which was omitted from the record it submitted to 

Plaintiffs. We identified what appears to be a copy of this declaration attached to a CPD 

submission on the FEC’s website. See http://sers.fec.gov/fosers/showpdf.htm?docid=3

10982. There, Newport never disputed the CPD’s reasons for using the polling criterion; 

rather, this submission confirms that the CPD’s goal is “to determine whether a candidate 

ha[s] a realistic chance of election” (id. at 18), which the CPD itself reaffirmed after 

Newport submitted his declaration (AR7114). 

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Second, as we explained in the opening brief (at 28), Democratic and Republican 

candidates are never excluded by the 15% rule. Conversely, polling error could easily result in 

the wrongful exclusion of independent candidates (AR2517), which is why the 15% criterion 

disfavors them. Our opening brief (at 28) discredited the Factual and Legal Analysis II’s 

contention that polling “error may be just as likely result in over inclusion of [independent] 

candidates.” (See AR7232; Pl. Br. 28). Now, in its summary judgment brief, the FEC appears to 

have abandoned that argument. (FEC Br. 38). Instead the FEC baldly claims that “all candidates 

. . . equally endure whatever errors may be present” (id.), thus ignoring the blatant inequality 

detailed in the Young report (AR2517) and explained in our opening brief (Pl. Br. 28). Indeed, 

Young quantified this disparity by showing that a hypothetical candidate with 17% of voter 

support would nonetheless be falsely excluded by the CPD’s 15% rule over 40% of the time, 

whereas a candidate with 42% support would be falsely excluded only .04% of the time. 

(AR2517 ¶ 66). The FEC disregards these calculations and otherwise ignores the fundamental 

reasons why polling error disfavors independent candidates. “An agency’s decision is not 

deliberative,” and thus is “arbitrary and capricious,” where, as here, the agency “fails to ‘respond 

meaningfully to” plaintiffs’ presentation. Salazar, 117 F. Supp. 3d at 532 (quoting BNSF Ry. 

Co. v. Surface Transp. Bd., 741 F.3d 163, 168 (D.C. Cir. 2014)).

Finally, Young recognized that the gubernatorial data on which he relied was more “more 

error prone” than data from presidential races, and explicitly “adjusted” for this difference. 

(AR2515-16 ¶¶ 57-58). The Factual and Legal Analysis II failed to acknowledge this 

adjustment, let alone contest its accuracy. (Pl. Br. 28-29; AR7232). 

The FEC’s summary judgment brief does the exact same thing. (FEC Br. 14, 38). It 

summarily claims that “Young inappropriately relied upon gubernatorial elections,” without 

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addressing the corrections explicitly set forth in Young’s report. (FEC Br. 14). As above (at 

n.6), the FEC suggests that it was relying upon a Newport declaration. (FEC Br. 38). This 

document shows that Newport committed the identical error as the FEC: he claims presidential 

polling is “inherently more reliable” than gubernatorial polling without acknowledging that 

Young addressed this issue or refuting the manner in which Young corrected for it. (AR7232; 

http://sers.fec.gov/fosers/showpdf.htm?docid=310982). Here too, the FEC acted contrary to law

by failing to “‘respond meaningfully” to Plaintiffs’ claims. Salazar, 117 F. Supp. 3d at 532.

b. Douglas Schoen 

The FEC barely tries to defend its critique of Schoen’s report. It devotes little more than 

a page of superficial analysis to Schoen, and tacitly recognizes that its rejection of his 

conclusions, like its treatment of Young, was arbitrary and capricious. (FEC Br. 39-40).

First, the FEC apparently recognizes how absurd it was for the Factual and Legal 

Analysis II to claim that Gary Johnson and Jill Stein received “extensive media coverage.” (FEC 

Br. 39). It does not dispute that its own evidence shows these candidates made just over two 

media appearances per month, many of which ran only on C-SPAN (Pl. Br. 29; AR7226 n.107; 

AR7107-09), and that this level of exposure is patently insufficient to achieve anywhere close to 

the requisite name recognition. (Id.). Consequently, there is no dispute—or at least no serious 

one—that independents must pay for the requisite media exposure, as Schoen confirmed.

Second, the FEC repeats its claim that “Trump achieved efficiencies” “by focusing his 

spending on digital platforms like Facebook and Twitter” (FEC Br. 40), without disputing that 

Trump’s “efficiently run” campaign cost close to $1 billion, almost four times Schoen’s $266 

million estimate. (Pl. Br. 30-31). Nor does the FEC dispute that advertising on social media will 

not meaningfully reduce these astronomical costs. The FEC’s own data show that Trump 

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devoted a mere fraction of his $1 billion warchest to digital advertising, and it ignores additional 

data showing the relative insignificance of advertising on social media.

7

 (Pl. Br. 31). 

Third, the FEC concedes that the vast majority of Super PAC money goes to Republicans 

and Democrats, not independents. For example, it is undisputed that in 2016, $700 million was 

contributed to Republican and Democratic Super PACs, in contrast to the paltry $1.4 million

given to their independent counterparts. (Pl. Br. 30). The FEC does not dispute that this massive 

disparity merely adds to the preexisting multi-billion dollar fundraising disadvantage 

independents face. Instead, the FEC simply argues that outside funding sources (including Super

PACs) contributed “over $1 million” to Gary Johnson. (AR7227 n.114; FEC Br. 39-40). But 

that is a minute fraction of the $266 million an independent candidate must raise, and thus only 

serves to underscore Plaintiffs’ point: Super PACs, like social media, are patently insufficient to 

relieve independent candidates of their fundraising burden.

8

Finally, the FEC admits that its decision supplied no evidence of an independent

candidate who started out with significant name recognition (other than billionaire Michael 

Bloomberg). (See Pl. Br. 31-32; FEC Br. 40). Instead the FEC merely “presum[ed]” this was 

the case (FEC Br. 40 (quoting AR7228)), even though the only poll cited in either of its postremand decisions shows otherwise (Pl. Br. 31 n.47). 

 7 Though outside the record, the Court may consider this additional data because it shows 

that the FEC failed to consider “all the relevant factors” when it erroneously concluded

that advertising on social media would significantly defray the cost of a presidential 

campaign. Beyond Nuclear, 233 F. Supp. 3d at 48; accord Nat’l Mar. Safety Ass’n v. 

Occupational Safety & Health Admin., 649 F.3d 743, 753 & n.14 (D.C. Cir. 2011) (court 

may consider “background information” to determine whether agency adequately 

considered the relevant factors).

8 The FEC erroneously claims that Gary “Johnson reached 63% name recognition” despite 

raising less than $266 million. (FEC Br. 39). As explained above, this argument relies 

upon both the FEC’s “cherry-picking” a single poll and misrepresenting its results, and 

therefore is “arbitrary and capricious.” Salazar, 177 F. Supp. 3d at 533, 540.

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3. The FEC Failed To Meaningfully Consider The Evidence Against The 

CPD Directors

The directors’ belated response to the administrative complaints confirms neither they 

nor the FEC “consider[ed] the evidence presented against” them. LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 143. 

As explained (Pl. Br. 32-33), nine directors submitted identically-worded affidavits that they 

probably didn’t study before signing. The affidavits address none of Plaintiffs’ allegations 

specifically and ignore the evidence specific to these directors. They instead simply deny those 

allegations in identical and conclusory fashion. The affidavits concede that none of these 

directors even bothered to review the administrative complaints or the evidence supporting them. 

(Pl. Br. 32 n.48). By rotely accepting these meaningless affidavits, the FEC shirked its duty to 

give them the “searching[,] careful” and “thoughtful” consideration demanded by this Court. 

LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 140. 

The FEC’s brief reveals its fundamental misunderstanding of this duty. It argues the 

directors’ submission of affidavits that “were nearly identical does not itself render them . . . 

[in]admissibl[e].” (FEC Br. 35-36). It also purports to invoke the “sham affidavit rule,” which 

governs whether an affidavit “creat[es] an issue of material fact by contradicting prior sworn 

testimony.” (FEC Br. 35) (internal quotations omitted). But the question is not whether the 

affidavits are admissible or create an issue of material fact; indeed, the typical Rule 56 summary 

judgment standard “does not apply” when the motion challenges “agency action.” Stuttering 

Found. of Am. v. Springer, 498 F. Supp. 2d 203, 207 (D.D.C. 2007). The question instead is 

whether the FEC “thoughtfully” considered them and gave them the “hard look” that the law 

requires. LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 140. The FEC’s attempt to circumvent this requirement by 

invoking irrelevant doctrines only reinforces the conclusion that it disregarded the requirement. 

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Indeed, our opening brief presented numerous examples of evidence specific to the 

directors that that their own affidavits ignored. (Pl. Br. 32-33). The FEC addresses only the 

evidence related to Alan Simpson, and its treatment of that evidence is disingenuous at best. As 

we explained, Simpson’s affidavit both ignores his admission that the CPD wants “the American 

people [to] find[] out more about the two major candidates—not about independent candidates” 

(AR3095), and contradicts that statement in numerous ways. (AR7160-61 ¶¶ 3-5). In response, 

the FEC disregards this affidavit, and instead relies upon another affidavit Simpson submitted 13 

years ago in a different action involving the CPD. (AR3142-43). And that prior affidavit 

confirms Simpson’s partisan bias. There, Simpson tried to justify the above-quoted description 

of the CPD’s partisanship by claiming that “he was not told” by the person who recorded it “that 

the purpose of [the] interview was to press a claim against the CPD.” (AR3142 ¶ 3). In other 

words, Simpson admitted that he would not have presented his true beliefs about the CPD had he 

known his statement would be used in the litigation. That was precisely the approach that he and 

his CPD colleagues took when the signed the bogus affidavits submitted here. 

4. The FEC Arbitrarily And Capriciously Concluded That The CPD’s 

Polling Criterion Was Objective

For all of these reasons, the 15% polling criterion is not “objective”; it was intended to, 

and does, promote the interests of the Republican and Democratic nominees by excluding their 

competitors from the presidential debates. The FEC’s brief does not seriously suggest otherwise. 

Instead, it erroneously claims that the criterion (1) is “objective” because two candidates who ran 

for president four and six decades ago, respectively, would have satisfied it; and (2) “balance[s] 

the goal of being sufficiently inclusive” against the “risk that leading candidates with the highest 

levels of public support would refuse to participate.” (FEC Br. 40-41). 

No independent has satisfied the 15% criterion since it was instituted by the CPD nearly 

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two decades ago. LPF, 232 F. Supp. 3d at 144. The FEC identifies only two candidates in the 

past century—John Anderson and George Wallace—who polled at or above 15% during the 

relevant time period. (FEC Br. 41).9

 The FEC concedes that Anderson and Wallace participated 

in their parties’ primaries before launching independent campaigns in the general election. (Dkt. 

76 ¶ 52; Dkt. 82 ¶ 52). As Schoen explained, major party primaries “draw[] immense and free 

national media” which “gives underfunded campaigns the chance to build name recognition 

affordably.” (AR2559). Independent candidates, by contrast, are largely ignored by the press, 

which is why they need to spend more money than they could ever hope to raise in order to 

generate the requisite name recognition. That the two “independent” candidates to reach 15% 

first participated in the major party primaries thus supports Plaintiffs’ point; no truly independent 

candidate would have ever satisfied the CPD’s current polling criterion. (Pl. Br. 34). The FEC 

brushes aside this argument (at 41), but a debate-qualifying criterion that requires a candidate to 

participate in a major party primary is, by definition, partisan. It is not the kind of “objective” 

criterion that debate-staging organizations funded by corporate money must employ. 

And it is preposterous to suggest, as the FEC does, that the current debate-qualifying 

criteria are “sufficiently inclusive.” No independent candidate has ever qualified under these 

criteria; they are, by definition, exclusive.

10 Nor does the FEC adequately explain its purported 

concern about major party nominees who might “refuse to participate” if a third candidate were 

 9 The FEC suggests (at 41) that Ross Perot would have qualified, but admitted in its answer 

that he “would not have satisfied the CPD’s current rule, because he was polling at or 

below 10% prior to the 1992 debates.” (Dkt. 76 ¶ 52; Dkt. 82 ¶ 52). 

10 The CPD claims to “careful[ly]” consider alternatives to the 15% rule—and yet it always 

seems to choose the exact same criterion, which just so happens to have excluded every 

independent candidate from every debate since the criterion was introduced. The League 

of Women Voters, on which the CPD purports to rely, actually supports Plaintiffs’ efforts 

to change the CPD’s debate-qualifying criteria. (AR0402-06). 

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invited to the debates. (FEC Br. 41). The regulation requires criteria that are “objective.” 11 

C.F.R. § 110.13(c). It does not require—indeed, it does not permit—criteria that cater to 

Republican and Democratic nominees who might throw a temper tantrum if, as the vast majority 

of Americans want, the debates were more inclusive. And because the debates are now 

institutionalized events that voters expect the presidential candidates to attend, there is no real 

risk that a candidate would abstain. Yet the CPD has consistently defied the popular will and 

violated the regulation’s objectivity requirement using this nonexistent risk as a pretext. And the 

FEC has yet again stuck its head in the sand and refused to rectify the CPD’s FECA violations. 

III. THE FEC’S REFUSAL TO OPEN A RULEMAKING WAS ARBITRARY AND 

CAPRICIOUS

A. The Treatment Of The Young Report Was Arbitrary And Capricious

The rulemaking decision erroneously claimed that Young analyzed only “data about 

name recognition of major party candidates at the early stages of the party primary process.” 

(AR1933). As explained (Pl. Br. 36), his report explicitly relies upon polling data from all

stages of the election, including late primary and general election polling. (AR2520). The FEC 

now concedes mischaracterizing the report, and admits that Young analyzed “late primary 

polling.” (FEC Br. 43). It argues that “the page in the Administrative Record plaintiffs cite does

not actually show any use of general election polling” (id.), but that is simply false. Plaintiffs 

cited AR2520 (Pl. Br. 36), and on that page, Young is clear that his conclusions are based upon 

both “general” and “primary” election polling. It thus appears that the FEC still has not bothered 

to read the report in sufficient detail to determine what data Young relied upon, violating this 

Court’s command that the agency “thorough[ly]” examine the “Young . . . report.” LPF, 232 F. 

Supp. 3d at 146-48. Because the FEC now concedes that it “misrepresent[ed]” Young’s analysis 

and ignored “the relevant data” on which he relied, there is no doubt that the rulemaking decision 

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was “arbitrary and capricious.” Salazar, 177 F. Supp. 3d at 533, 540; Resolute Forest, 187 F. 

Supp. 3d at 122.

The FEC continues to deny the causal relationship between name recognition and vote 

share. (FEC Br. 43). But it does not dispute that voters cannot like a candidate until they know 

who the candidate is. (AR2492 ¶ 7). Because name recognition is a necessary condition to vote 

share, there must be causal relationship between these two variables. The FEC argues that other 

factors may diminish a candidate’s vote share, using Gary Johnson’s answer to a question about 

Aleppo as an example, but that is a red herring. (FEC Br. 43). To understand why, take the 

example of a marathon runner. To run a marathon requires training; in other words, there is a 

causal relationship between the runner’s training and her performance in the marathon. But there 

are other factors that may also influence her performance. For example, she may suffer an injury 

during the race that prevents her from completing the marathon. That does not somehow negate 

the causal relationship between training and performance. Injuries are simply another variable 

that may affect the outcome. Similarly, in an election, there are numerous factors that may 

impact a candidate’s standing in the polls but, as Young explained, those factors do not even 

come into play unless voters first know who the candidate is. (AR2492 ¶¶ 7-8). That 

conclusively establishes a causal relationship between name recognition and vote share, and the 

FEC offers no legitimate explanation for its persistent refusal to acknowledge this relationship.

B. The Treatment Of The Schoen Report Was Arbitrary And Capricious

It is now undisputed that the FEC blatantly misrepresented the results of its Westlaw 

news analysis in an attempt to conceal the paltry coverage received by independent candidates in 

2016. (FEC Br. 44). The FEC does not contest that (1) in reality, the newspapers it analyzed 

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23

rarely mentioned the independent candidates11; (2) the FEC overstated coverage of independent 

candidates by, inter alia, including numerous articles about Gary Johnsons who were not the 

presidential candidate, and articles that did not increase or sustain the candidates’ name 

recognition; (3) the FEC radically understated coverage of the major party candidates, and rigged 

the date ranges it searched, in order to make that coverage appear comparable to that of the 

independent candidates; (4) the FEC minimized coverage of the major party primary candidates 

by searching time periods when they were not running for president; and (5) comparing news 

coverage of the independent and major party candidates when their candidacies overlapped 

reveals that the press overwhelmingly favored the major party candidates. (Pl. Br. 37-42).

The FEC now tries to downplay the rulemaking decision’s falsification of the Westlaw 

news results (FEC Br. 44), but its significance cannot be overstated. The premise of Schoen’s 

report is that independent candidates are “[d]eprived of free media attention”; this is why they 

would need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on paid media in order to satisfy the CPD’s 

polling criterion. (AR2558). The rulemaking decision tried to undermine this premise by 

claiming that the independent candidates “received significant media attention in 2016.” 

(AR1933). Not only was this claim false, but the FEC advanced this falsehood by intentionally

gerryrigging its analysis to achieve a preordained result. For example, it is no accident that the 

FEC rigged the date ranges it searched to minimize results for major party candidates and inflate 

the results for the independents. And the FEC could not have actually believed that Gary 

Johnson received almost half as much news coverage as Donald Trump. (See Pl. Br. 39). The 

 11 It is undisputed that most independent candidates were mentioned only once every two 

weeks by each newspaper. (Pl. Br. 38). The FEC baldly insists that these candidates 

“received significant media attention” (FEC Br. 44), without attempting to explain how 

the paltry attention they actually received could possibly be described as “significant.”

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agency said this only because it supported the outcome it wanted to reach. The FEC has been 

caught red-handed displaying both its own partisanship and its intent to reach a “preordained” 

result, rendering its decision “arbitrary and capricious.” Kelly v. United States, 34 F. Supp. 2d 8, 

12 (D.D.C. 1998)

The FEC’s remaining arguments about Schoen need not detain this Court long. (FEC Br. 

44-45). The FEC now concedes its rulemaking decision overlooked the “recent . . . articles” on 

which Schoen relied to demonstrate why independent candidates have difficulty attracting free

media. (See Pl. Br. 42; FEC Br. 44). Likewise, the decision ignores Plaintiffs’ showing that 

Obama benefitted from the exposure he received during the Democratic primaries. (Pl. Br. 42). 

The FEC continues to misconstrue Schoen’s point about Rick Santorum—that Santorum 

was able to substantially increase his name recognition during the Republican Iowa causes 

despite spending less than $22,000 on his “media campaign” in that state. (AR2558). The FEC 

argues that “Santorum spent over $112,000 in Iowa” (FEC Br. 44), but even that figure, which 

includes non-media expenditures, is miniscule compared to what an independent candidate 

lacking the media attention afforded to major party primary contestants would need to spend.

Finally, although the data underlying Schoen’s estimates was readily available to the 

FEC, it offers no excuse for its failure to review that data. (FEC Br. 44-45). Nor does the 

agency dispute that, because it now admits an “economically” run presidential campaign costs

close to $1 billion, Schoen’s $266 million estimate is, if anything, understated. (See Pl. Br. 43).

CONCLUSION

This Court should not only award summary judgment to Plaintiffs and deny the FEC’s 

cross-motion for summary judgment, but also fashion a remedy ensuring that the FEC and the 

CPD will not evade compliance. The courts’ experience with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform 

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Act (“BCRA”) illustrates the need for an airtight remedy. As the BCRA’s co-sponsors, Chris 

Shays and Martin Meehan, explained in a recent op-ed,12 they had to sue the FEC after it refused 

to enact the strong campaign finance reform regulations required by the BCRA. The lawsuit 

succeeded in part, but the courts’ remedy was to “rely solely on the FEC to enforce the law.” 

Because the FEC “ha[d] no interest in such enforcement,” it “refused to obey” court orders and 

“repeatedly refused to write proper regulations.” The result was “six years of litigation overs 

several election cycles,” in which Shays and Meehan kept returning to court because the FEC 

“continually ignor[ed] not just the law, but the orders of the court.” Id.; see also Shays v. FEC,

337 F. Supp. 2d 28 (D.D.C. 2004); Shays v. FEC, 340 F. Supp. 2d 39 (D.D.C. 2004); Shays v. 

FEC, 414 F.3d 76 (D.C. Cir. 2005); Shays v. FEC, 508 F. Supp. 2d 10 (D.D.C. 2007); Shays v. 

FEC, 528 F.3d 914 (D.C. Cir. 2008).

To avoid a similar problem here, Plaintiffs should be permitted to sue the CPD directly, 

so that a court could then force the CPD to comply with FECA. The Court should also require 

the FEC to open a rulemaking. As the FEC has proven through three decades of shameless

dereliction, nothing short of an explicit court order demanding these remedies will suffice.

 12 https://www.thedailybeast.com/two-former-congressmen-explain-why-the-federalelections-commission-cant-be-trusted.

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Dated: November 10, 2017

New York, New York

Respectfully submitted,

 /s/ Alexandra A.E. Shapiro

Alexandra A.E. Shapiro (D.C. Bar No. 438461)

Eric S. Olney (admitted pro hac vice)

SHAPIRO ARATO LLP

500 Fifth Avenue

40th Floor

New York, New York 10110

Phone: (212) 257-4880

Fax: (212) 202-6417

Attorneys for Plaintiffs Level the Playing Field, 

Peter Ackerman, Green Party of the United States, 

and Libertarian National Committee, Inc.

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