ORAL ARGUMENT SCHEDULED MAY 16, 2013 _____________________

No. 12-5365 _____________________

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT _____________________

WENDY E. WAGNER, et al.,

Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION,

Defendant-Appellee. _____________________

On Appeal from the 

United States District Court

For the District of Columbia

No. 1:11-cv-08841 (JEB) _____________________

REPLY BRIEF FOR PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS

(CORRECTED)

_____________________

Alan B. Morrison

George Washington University Law School

2000 H Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20052

(202) 994-7120

abmorrison@law.gwu.edu

Arthur B. Spitzer

American Civil Liberties Union 

 of the Nation’s Capital

4301 Connecticut Ave, N.W., Suite 434

Washington, D.C. 20008

(202) 457-0800

artspitzer@aclu-nca.org

Corrected March 11, 2013 Counsel for Plaintiffs-Appellants

USCA Case #12-5365 Document #1424661 Filed: 03/11/2013 Page 1 of 28
i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT.................................................................. 1

I. WHAT THE FEC BRIEF DOES NOT ANSWER................................................. 3

First Amendment........................................................................................................ 3

Equal Protection......................................................................................................... 9

II. THE FEC’S REMAINING FIRST AMENDMENT

ARGUMENTS ARE WITHOUT MERIT............................................................ 13

III. THE FEC CONTINUES TO MISPERCEIVE

PLAINTIFFS’ EQUAL PROTECTION CLAIM................................................ 20

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 22

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE ...............................................................................

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE .........................................................................................

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ii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

CASES

*Blount v. SEC, 61 F.3d 938 (D.C. Cir. 1995)............................................................. 4, 17

Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371 (1971).................................................................... 21

*Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976).................................................................... 7, 14, 16

Citizens United v. FEC, 130 S. Ct. 876 (2010)............................................................. 9, 10

City of Cleburne. v. Cleburne Living Center, 473 U.S. 432 (1985)................................. 20

Civil Service Commission v. National Association of Letter Carriers, 413 U.S. 548 

(1973)............................................................................................................................ 14

Clark v. Jeter, 486 U.S. 456 (1988). .................................................................................. 9

Cleveland Bd. of Education v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532 (1985). ................................... 17

FEC v. Beaumont, 539 U.S. 146 (2003)............................................................................ 9

Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003). ........................................................................ 21

McConnell v. FEC, 540 U.S. 93 (2003). ............................................................................ 4

McCutcheon v. FEC, Supreme Court, No. 12-536, jurisdiction noted, February 19, 2013 

...................................................................................................................................... 16

Northwest Austin Municipal Utility Dist. No.1 v. Holder, 557 U.S. 193 (2009)............. 16

Randall v. Sorrell, 548 U.S. 230 (2006). ............................................................................ 4

*Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, 536 U.S. 765 (2002). ................................ 6, 20

Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996). ............................................................................. 19

Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989). ............................................................................. 8

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

U.S. Const. amend. I...............................................................2-4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 17, 19-21

U.S. Const. amend. V........................................................................... 2, 3, 9, 11, 14, 19-21

*Authorities upon which we chiefly rely are marked with an asterisk.

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STATUTES

2 U.S.C. § 441b................................................................................................................... 6

2 U.S.C. § 441c................................................................................. 2-4, 6, 8-10, 13-20, 22

N.J. Admin. Code § 19:25-24.1 ........................................................................................ 12

N.J. Stat. § 19:44A-20.14.................................................................................................. 11

NYC Admin Code § 3-702(18)(v).................................................................................... 19

NYC Admin Code § 6-116.2i(3)(a).................................................................................. 19

W. Va. Code § 3-8-12(d) .................................................................................................... 8

OTHER AUTHORITIES

Amicus Brief for the United States in Hollingsworth v. Perry, No. 12-144 (filed Feb. 28, 

2013)............................................................................................................................. 11

Report by Wendy Wagner for ACUS, available at, 

http://acus.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Science%20in%20Regulation_Final%20R

eport_2_18_13_0.pdf.................................................................................................... 14

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No. 12-5365

___________________________

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

___________________________

WENDY E. WAGNER, et al.,

Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION,

Defendant-Appellee.

___________________________

REPLY BRIEF FOR PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS

___________________________

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT

___________________________

This reply is divided into three sections. First, appellants discuss the 

significant arguments that they made in their opening brief to which appellee 

either made no response or made one that does not answer the essence of 

appellants’ challenge. Second and third, we respond to the few new points 

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made by the FEC in its brief on the First Amendment and Equal Protection

issues, respectively.

Before turning to those arguments, appellants wish to dispel what they 

perceive to be the overall claim of the FEC and its amici: that plaintiffs 

contend that there is no danger that campaign contributions may be used in 

some instances to obtain federal contracts that should have been awarded to 

someone else, i.e., that contributions may represent a form of “pay-to-play.” 

That is not appellants’ position. They recognize the potential for undue 

influence in some contributions, but section 441c’s ban is far too broad in its 

reach, while at the same time allowing contributions by others that raise far 

greater pay-to-play concerns. It is not the goal of section 441c that is the 

problem; it is the way in which it operates. Congress could and should 

address these problems, but until it does, the First Amendment and the Equal 

Protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment preclude the FEC from 

enforcing the ban in section 441c against plaintiffs and other individual 

federal contractors.

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I. WHAT THE FEC BRIEF DOES NOT ANSWER.

What is most remarkable about the FEC’s 60 page brief is the number 

of significant arguments made by appellants that the FEC does not address, 

or does not address seriously. We have divided those unanswered 

arguments into two groups: First Amendment and Equal Protection. 

First Amendment

1. Assuming that the justifications asserted by the FEC to support 

section 441c as applied to individual federal contractors are valid, the FEC 

has failed to explain why an absolute ban on contributions to candidates, 

parties, and political committees is needed, i.e., why the same contribution 

limits applicable to all other eligible voters do not suffice. No ban can pass 

even the “closely drawn” test that the FEC admits applies unless there is 

some reason why all other voters are permitted to make thousands of dollars 

in contributions, with full public disclosure, but individual federal 

contractors cannot give even $1. While the FEC has cited a potential danger 

from contractor contributions, it has never explained why existing 

contribution limits, or even lower limits, would not sufficiently address that 

potential danger. 

2. The FEC contends that review under the “closely drawn” standard 

is “more lenient” (Br. 23) but cannot explain how the Supreme Court was 

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able to dispose summarily of the justifications offered to defend the ban on 

contributions by minors in McConnell v. FEC, 540 U.S. 93, 231-32 (2003),

or how that “lenient” standard allowed the Court to conclude that the 

statutory level of contributions was too low in Randall v. Sorrell, 548 U.S. 

230, 253-62 (2006). To be sure, the reason that the Court set aside the limits 

in Randall was different from the reasons that section 441c violates the First 

Amendment, but re-calibrating the amounts needed to run a race for elected 

office, as the Court did in Randall, could not properly be characterized as a 

“lenient” review. Indeed, it was a far more intrusive judicial intervention 

than setting aside the absolute ban in section 441c would be here.

3. The FEC relies heavily on state and local laws banning or limiting 

contractor contributions, but it fails to point to a single law that has been 

upheld that is as sweeping in its reach and as absolute in its prohibitions as 

section 441c. Instead, every statute, as well as the rule in Blount v. SEC, 61 

F.3d 938 (D.C. Cir. 1995), is distinguishable in very significant ways. They 

include (a) exclusions for contracts under a certain amount; (b) exceptions 

for modest contributions of, for example, $250; and/or (c) coverage of 

contributions only to elected officials who have formal roles in the 

contracting process, and not to all candidates and unaffiliated political 

committees and in some cases not to political parties. While it is correct that 

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state laws often cover personal services contracts, we are aware of no state 

law contribution law, let alone a ban like section 441c, that has been applied

to individuals like plaintiffs Miller and Brown who function as if they were 

employees.

4. The FEC fails to explain how the contractor ban can be considered 

“closely drawn” when it prohibits contributions to recipients that have no 

possible role in awarding any federal contract, including ideological and 

unaffiliated PACs, such as Emily’s List and those established by groups 

such as the NRA and the Sierra Club, and minor and new parties (and their 

candidates) that have no federal elected officials and have no chance of 

electing any.

5. Nor does the FEC suggest an explanation for why a Congress that 

was seeking to prevent pay-to-play would fail to ban contributions from 

federal grant recipients, who receive more total annual federal dollars than 

do contractors (JA 193, p. 38), or from those who are awarded one of the 

8000 appointed federal positions listed in the Plum Book (Br. 14, n.4). 

Given the notoriety of the “contribute-to-play” for those positions, a 

Congress serious about eliminating the appearance that high level federal 

jobs are for sale would have taken action long ago to institute a ban or do 

what the SEC has done for municipal securities – prohibit employing a 

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major contributor for two years after the last significant contribution. As the 

Supreme Court observed in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, 536 

U.S. 765, 780 (2002), the ban here is “so woefully underinclusive as to 

render belief in that purpose a challenge to the credulous.”

6. The FEC argues that it is the role of Congress to decide issues 

regarding coverage of section 441c (Br. 34), because it is “better equipped” 

to do so than the courts (Br. 38), and the courts should not second-guess its 

“careful legislative judgment” on what to include or exclude (Br. 43). 

Beyond the fact that this is a First Amendment, not an economic regulation 

case, there are three major flaws in the FEC’s plea for deference to 

Congress: (1) There is no indication that Congress ever focused on any of 

the objections raised by appellants at any time, starting with 1940 when the 

ban was enacted, until today, including when it amended section 441c in 

1976. Part of the reason for the lack of attention is that there has been very 

little litigation over section 441c because most contractors are corporations, 

and they are banned by section 441b from making contributions even if they 

are not contractors. (2) The laws regulating political contributions in federal 

elections have undergone a revolutionary change since 1940, but section

441c has remained as it was when enacted. (3) Federal contracting may have 

been significantly influenced by contributions in 1940, but the major 

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changes described in our opening brief (11-12) have largely, if not 

completely de-politicized the contracting process. While under Buckley v.

Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 105 (1976), Congress may proceed “one step at a time,” 

that does not mean that the steps that it took when it passed section 441c in 

1940, or amended it to add subsections 441(b) & (c) in 1976, and made 

major changes in government procurement laws beginning in 1948, can be 

ignored forever by the courts.

7. The FEC offers no evidence that any elected official or other 

prohibited recipients of federal contributions had anything to do with the 

contracts of these plaintiffs or of any other individual contractor. Instead, it 

observes that these plaintiffs (and presumably other individual contractors) 

have “interacted” or had “interactions” (Br. 3, 4) with appointed federal 

officials in carrying out their contractual duties. The FEC makes a similar 

observation about the individuals whose positions appear in the Plum Book 

and who “may be able to influence” federal contracting (Br. 14, n.4) or 

“oversee” federal contracts” (Br. 36). But this is a First Amendment case, 

and those connections are simply not “closely” enough “drawn” to satisfy 

the Constitution. 

8. The FEC argues that plaintiffs have ample other opportunities to 

express their political preferences, in particular the ability to hold fundraisers 

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for candidates for federal offices that it contends are “far more expressive” 

than giving money (Br.40). In addition to the basic flaw that individuals, not 

the Government, have the right to choose their preferred means of political 

expression, Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), the FEC never attempts 

to explain how the interests in removing politics from federal contracting 

and avoiding the appearance of pay-to-play are supported by allowing 

plaintiffs to hold fundraisers that could potentially bring in $10,000 or more 

for candidates or parties, but are undermined by allowing the same plaintiffs 

to write a check for $10 to a candidate, party, or political committee of their 

choosing.1

9. The FEC insists that preventing coercion of contractors is an 

important purpose supporting section 441c, but it never attempts to explain 

why the existing federal statutes discussed in our brief (45, n.5) either do not 

now, or could not easily be amended to, guard against coercion, just as they 

do for federal employees and others.

 1 W. Va. Code § 3-8-12(d) cited by amici, p. 6, n.12, is the closest statute to 

section 441c, but its validity has not been challenged, as far as appellants are 

aware. Unlike section 441c, however, it does not permit contractors to solicit 

contributions “for any [political] purpose,” i.e., to hold fundraisers. 

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Equal Protection

10. The FEC continues ask the Court to apply rational basis review to

appellants’ Equal Protection claim. It correctly recognizes that appellants’ 

First Amendment claim is subject to at least a form of heightened scrutiny –

the closely drawn standard – and yet it persists in seeking to obtain a more 

relaxed review when appellants’ claim includes the additional objection that 

others who are similarly situated to appellants are not subject to the ban in 

section 441c. It is impossible to understand why there should be a lower 

standard of review for a claim involving a fundamental right that also 

contains allegations of discrimination, than for the same claim involving 

restrictions (or, as here, a ban) that apply to everyone. Accordingly, at least 

intermediate scrutiny is required, and under it the “statutory classification 

must be substantially related to an important governmental objective.” Clark 

v. Jeter, 486 U.S. 456, 461 (1988) (discussing different Equal Protection 

standards of scrutiny).2

 2 Although this reply focuses on showing why appellants should prevail even 

under less stringent standards of scrutiny, appellants continue to urge that 

their First Amendment and Equal Protection claims should be evaluated 

under strict scrutiny, see Appellants’ opening brief at 25-28 (Equal 

Protection); 38-40 (First Amendment). Moreover, although FEC v. 

Beaumont, 539 U.S. 146, 161-63 (2003), declined to apply strict scrutiny to 

the contribution ban at issue there, that ban applied to a corporation, and not 

to individuals like appellants who have a right to vote in federal elections. 

Appellants also believe that the decision in Citizens United v. FEC, 130 S. 

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11. The FEC also seeks deference to Congress’s differing treatment

of similarly situated contributors by ascribing to Congress a “careful 

legislative judgment” (Br. 48), by asserting that courts “cannot override 

Congress’s discretion” (Br. 57), and by claiming to find a “delicate 

balancing of interests [that] is a legislative judgment to which courts defer” 

(Br. 60). These contentions, like those the FEC made in its First 

Amendment defense, are wholly undermined by the lack of any evidence 

that Congress even considered the inequality between individual and 

corporate contractors when it added subsections 441c(b) & 441c(c) in 1976, 

or when it made any of the changes to the Hatch Act starting in 1940. In 

short, there is no “legislative judgment” or exercise of Congress’s 

“discretion” to which a court might appropriately give deference.

12. The FEC continues to defend the discrimination in favor of 

corporate contractors, effectively turning the pre-Citizens United approach 

on its head, by observing that a corporate contractor and its PAC bearing its 

name are legally separate entities, a fact that appellants do not dispute. What 

the FEC does not explain is how the asserted purpose of preventing the 

appearance of pay-to-play, which supports the ban as applied to individuals 

such as plaintiffs, is not thoroughly undermined by allowing corporations to 

 

Ct. 876 (2010), further strengthens their argument that strict scrutiny 

governs the ban on individual contractors in section 441c.

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set up their own PACs to make the same kind of contributions that plaintiffs 

cannot make. The FEC’s formalistic approach to Equal Protection analysis 

should be rejected in favor of one in which the reason for the applicable rule 

of law and the context in which the classification arises are the focus of the 

equality analysis. Under that approach, objective observers would 

understand that a contribution from a contractor’s PAC creates an identical 

appearance of pay-to-play as if the same contribution came from the 

contractor itself, or, as the FEC put it, that there is a comparable appearance 

of “a danger that politics can infect the federal contracting process” (Br. 

31).3

13. The same kind of formalism is used by the FEC to defend

allowing corporate officers, including officers and sole-shareholders of 

LLCs, to make contributions that plaintiffs cannot make. Compare N.J. Stat. 

§ 19:44A-20.14 (forbidding state from entering contracts, but only those

above $17,500 with business entities that made contributions, but only to the 

 3 As the Solicitor General noted on page 23 of the amicus brief for the 

United States in Hollingsworth v. Perry, No. 12-144 (filed February 28, 

2013)(citations omitted): “Under heightened scrutiny, however, a court 

evaluates the fit between a proffered interest and the challenged 

classification not in isolation or in the abstract, but in the context of the 

regulatory regime as it actually exists. ... Petitioners cite no precedent 

requiring (or even permitting) a court to shut its eyes to the actual operation 

and effect of the law in context.”

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Governor or Lieutenant Governor or state political party), and N.J. Admin. 

Code § 19:25-24.1 (defining business entity to include owners of 10% of the 

business or more, not every shareholder as amici suggest is plaintiffs’ 

position (Br. 24-25). It is true that individuals who work for corporations 

have a separate legal identity from their employer, but when the chief 

defense procurement officer of Boeing makes a contribution to the reelection campaign of the chair of the Senate Defense Appropriation 

Subcommittee, it is not even rational to assert that objective observers would 

dismiss the idea that pay-to-play might be at work there, but nonetheless 

assume that when these plaintiffs or the thousands of other individuals who 

hold federal contracts write a $100 check to any candidate, political party or 

political committee, no matter how disconnected the recipient may be from 

the contracting entity, there is an inevitable inference of pay-to-play. 

Similarly, from a pay-to-play perspective, as well as avoiding undue 

coercion on would-be contractors and assuring that contract determinations 

are based on merit, no sensible person would assume that those objectives 

are differently affected by whether plaintiff Wagner or plaintiffs’ declarant 

Jonathan Tiemann chose to create an LLC and used that as the contracting 

vehicle, or simply entered the contract in his or her own name, especially 

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when the contracting agency is indifferent as between the two options (JA 

78-79).

II. THE FEC’S REMAINING FIRST AMENDMENT 

ARGUMENTS ARE WITHOUT MERIT.

In support of their motion for a preliminary injunction and again on 

summary judgment, appellants offered the declaration of Professor Steven 

Schooner, who teaches federal contracting law and has extensive experience 

with federal contracts while working in the Government and as an individual

federal contractor thereafter. The FEC took his deposition (JA 184-221), 

and both parties cited it on summary judgment. In this Court (Br. 10-11), 

the FEC quotes and cites selectively from the Schooner materials in a way 

that gives the impression that the federal contracting process today is fraught 

with potential for political influence and that section 441c is an essential 

safeguard. But his declaration (JA 72-75) and the portions of his deposition 

discussing the protections against non-merit based decisions in the 

contracting process (JA 127 & citations therein), paint a very different 

picture that the FEC offered no evidence to rebut, even though it has access 

to every federal agency that hires contractors. As for its conjectures about 

how plaintiffs Wagner and Miller may have obtained their contracts in ways 

that undermine the federal contracting process (Br. 37), that is sheer 

speculation. Indeed, the record shows that the opposite is true (JA 50-52, ¶¶ 

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3-4, JA 86-87; JA 64-66, ¶¶ 4-6; JA 98-99); see also JA 92-93 (describing 

the hiring process for plaintiff Brown).4 It is not just the hiring of plaintiffs 

that is insulated from politics. The current process, which has been vastly 

improved since 1940, is now merit based. JA 126-27, ¶ 14. Of course, like 

any other system, it is not perfect, but it is noteworthy that the FEC has 

failed to identify a single example of an effort to end run the contracting 

process by use of political contributions, as opposed to outright bribes. 

The FEC admonishes appellants for failing to distinguish Civil Service 

Commission v. National Association of Letter Carriers, 413 U.S. 548 

(1973), which the District Court relied on below (Br. 29). We did not 

discuss it for two reasons: first, the Hatch Act at issue there specifically 

allowed federal employees to do what section 441c forbids plaintiffs from 

doing: making contributions in connection with federal elections. That right

continues today and is one of the prongs of plaintiffs’ Equal Protection

argument. Second, there were no comparable Equal Protection claims raised 

in Letter Carriers, and the decision preceded the seminal campaign 

contribution case of Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976), by three years, as 

 4 Professor Wagner’s Final Report for ACUS of 159 pages, plus appendices 

of another 246 pages, is now publicly available.

http://acus.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Science%20in%20Regulation_

Final%20Report_2_18_13_0.pdf;. For that report, plus attendance at a 

number of ACUS meetings, she is being paid $12,000, or slightly more than 

75 cents a page just for the report.

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well as the many rulings that have followed it, almost all of which increased 

the First Amendment protections available for political speech, including 

making political contributions. 

The FEC describes section 441c as “one of the long-standing pillars 

supporting this important regulatory structure,” by which it appears to mean, 

protecting federal contracting from the appearance of pay-to-play (Br. 19). 

That hyperbole is unjustified. Corporations, which comprise the vast 

majority of federal contractors and an even larger percentage of federal

contracting dollars (JA 195, pp. 47-48), have been forbidden from making 

political contributions since 1907, although they are able to soften the effect 

of that ban by use of their PACs and their officers and shareholders. 

Although section 441c has been in place since 1940, there are virtually no 

enforcement cases utilizing it. Indeed, when the FEC attempts to show that 

there is a potential for corruption in the federal contracting process, the cases 

it cites involve crimes under other statutes (Br.14-15), where the amounts 

exchanged were many multiples of the contributions that plaintiffs would be 

allowed to make under federal law if they were freed of the ban in section 

441c. And, in contrast to the secret payments in the cases cited by the FEC, 

any contribution that plaintiffs and other individual contractors might make 

would be fully disclosed. Therefore, section 441c, even with its lineage of 

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more than 70 years, cannot stand because “the Act imposes current burdens 

and must be justified by current needs.” Northwest Austin Municipal Utility 

Dist. No.1 v. Holder, 557 U.S. 193, 203 (2009). 5

The FEC also argues that the ban in section 441c is not a serious 

matter because it is only “temporary” (Br. 21), meaning that it ends when the 

person is no longer a contractor or seeking a contract. But if the temporary 

nature of a ban were relevant, it surely would have helped the FEC in 

defending the ban on contributions by minors, nearly all of whom will reach 

age 18, but it did not. While the FEC attempts to downplay the significance 

of section 441c on plaintiffs, each of them was barred from making 

contributions in the very significant 2012 election. Plaintiff Brown has been 

a federal contractor since 2006, and his contract runs for several more years, 

with further renewals available. JA 55, ¶¶ 4-5. Plaintiff Miller is similarly 

situated, as are the nearly 700 USAID individual contractors who are also 

subject to section 441c. JA 64-66, ¶¶ 4-5. While plaintiff Wagner’s current 

 5 On February 19, 2013, the Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction in 

McCutcheon v. FEC, No. 12-536, in which the principal claim is that certain 

overall contribution limits that had been upheld in 1976 in Buckley were 

now unconstitutional because of subsequent changes in FECA that 

undermined the asserted rationales for those limits. The principle relied on 

by the FEC (Br. 48) that Congress is presumed to address language in a 

statute that it wishes to change, applies to questions of statutory 

interpretation; it does not relieve a court of the obligation to consider an 

existing statute in light of relevant changes of fact and/or law.

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contract may expire as early as this June, she reasonably expects to have 

future federal contracts that will subject her to section 441c. JA 50-51, ¶ 2 

& JA 81-82. The same is true of the retired FBI agents who conduct 

background investigation under federal contracts (JA 200, pp. 65-66 ) not to 

mention the scores of other individual federal contractors whom the FEC 

admits are covered by this ban (Pls. Br. 14-15). There is no legal basis 

under which an individual’s First Amendment rights can be “temporarily” 

banned for years or even decades, but if there were, the lengths of the 

denials here surely cannot be described as temporary.6

In an effort to make section 441c appear more reasonable and hence 

less subject to constitutional challenge, the FEC observes that the plaintiffs 

“have chosen to reap the benefits of contracting with the federal 

government” (Br. 19), as if to suggest that their choice requires them, in 

effect, to “take the bitter with the sweet,” a notion that the Supreme Court 

has thoroughly rejected. Cleveland Bd. of Education v. Loudermill, 470 U.S.

532, 541 (1985). It also may reflect the now-discredited Holmesian view of 

 6 This Court in Blount observed that the restriction there was “for a relatively 

short period of time,” 61 F.3d at 947, i.e., two years after a contribution was 

made. But the rule upheld there was, unlike section 441c, far from absolute: 

it excluded contracts awarded on the basis of competitive bids, id. at 948, n. 

5; it only applied to contributions “to the political campaigns of state 

officials from whom they obtain business,” id. at 939; and it disregarded 

contributions of up to $250, id. at 940. 

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the rights of public servants that appears to have underlay Congress’s 

understanding of the Constitution in 1940 (Pls. Br. 7-8), but that the FEC is 

quick to disown now (Br. 46-47). Taken as the FEC seems to want the 

Court to apply it, there would be no limits on the restrictions on the speech 

of federal contractors and no need to provide any alternative means of 

political expression, including allowing corporate contractors to set up 

PACS or their officers to make contributions from their own funds. Even 

the FEC does not appear to go that far, and therefore the fact that plaintiffs 

have “chosen to enter into contracts with the federal government” (Br. 2), is 

a red herring, as is the FEC’s claim that the ban is “easily avoided” by not 

being a federal contractor (Br. 42), and should be discarded as such.

In discussing the legislative history of section 441c, the FEC recounts 

the tale of the campaign books and other examples (Br. 8-9) to show why 

section 441c helps achieve the goals of coercion-free, merit-based, politicsfree contracting. There is one problem for the FEC with these examples: the 

quotations all use the term “he” to describe the person who made the coerced 

contribution, but it is unclear whether these contracts were with an 

individual or a company. However, because officers of corporate 

contractors can make contributions, even if their company cannot, all of the 

same potential for coercion and politically-based contracting decisions is just 

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as present today under section 441c as it was in 1940. In other words, a 

corporate officer could still be coerced into buying “campaign books” today 

even if his corporation cannot be.

The exclusion of officers of corporate contractors is part of our Equal 

Protection claim that section 441c, as applied to individual contractors, is “at 

once too narrow and too broad.” Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620, 633 (1996)

(applying rational basis review). But it is also a First Amendment issue 

because it demonstrates how under-inclusive section 441c is. Thus, states 

that have enacted laws designed to prevent pay-to-play have included 

provisions that ban contributions by corporate PACS, officers, and their 

family members, as well as the contracting company. Pls Br. 31. Other 

jurisdictions have included large grants where a similar rationale applies.

E.g., NYC Admin Code § 3-702(18)(v) (making restrictions, not a ban,

applicable to $100,000 grants); id. § 6-116.2i(3)(a) (determining amount).

Moreover, if Congress were serious about stamping out the 

appearance of corruption by severing the link between contributions and 

federal spending, it surely would have banned those who make, and often 

bundle, large contributions to the President and his party from being 

rewarded with high positions in the Administration. We do not argue, 

contrary to what the FEC suggests (Br. 43), that section 441c is fatally 

USCA Case #12-5365 Document #1424661 Filed: 03/11/2013 Page 23 of 28
20

flawed because it does not extend to every possible person with a connection 

with a federal contractor, but the First Amendment does not permit serious 

under-inclusions such as these when denying speech rights to plaintiffs. 

Republican Party of Minnesota, supra.

III. THE FEC CONTINUES TO MISPERCEIVE

PLAINTIFFS’ EQUAL PROTECTION CLAIM.

The FEC continues to treat plaintiffs’ Equal Protection claim as if it is 

no more than a variation on the First Amendment argument. It is not. The 

fact that the prior campaign finance cases have been primarily argued as 

First Amendment cases is because, until now, there has never been the kind 

of rank discrimination that is applicable to plaintiffs under section 441c. 

Their Equal Protection claim stands on its own because it is based on a 

differing and less favorable treatment of individual contractors than of others

in comparable relationships with the federal government. For that reason, 

section 441c violates the Equal Protection command that “all persons 

similarly situated should be treated alike.” City of Cleburne. v. Cleburne 

Living Center, 473 U.S. 432, 439 (1985) (striking down law under rational 

basis standard). The Court may disagree about whether their situations are 

similar, but that is a merits question, not a conclusion that the claims are 

really one. 

USCA Case #12-5365 Document #1424661 Filed: 03/11/2013 Page 24 of 28
21

To be sure, most campaign finance cases have been decided on First 

Amendment grounds, but that is because in most cases there was no 

significant difference in treatment between similarly situated groups. 

However, as Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 579-85 (2003) shows, some 

cases can be based on either Equal Protection or other substantive grounds in 

the Constitution. See also Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371 (1971)

(holding filing fee for divorce unconstitutional on both Due Process and 

Equal Protection grounds). At least where the differing treatment is on the 

face of the statute, there is every reason to address that discrimination 

initially and leave the broader grounds for another day.

Finally, although the District Court rejected the FEC’s effort to apply 

rational basis scrutiny to plaintiffs’ Equal Protection claim, the agency 

attempts to revive that lesser scrutiny when it seeks to defend the unequal 

treatment afforded plaintiffs. Thus, on page 56, it argues that “Congress 

might have rationally concluded that there is a lower risk of corruption or its 

appearance when the person receiving the government contract is different 

from the person making the contribution” (emphasis added). The next two 

sentences make similar arguments regarding other differing treatments, 

albeit without the “rationally” modifier, but with the “might have” in each 

one. Because rational basis does not apply (Pls. Br. 25-28), and the 

USCA Case #12-5365 Document #1424661 Filed: 03/11/2013 Page 25 of 28
22

speculation based on “might haves” will not suffice for intermediate 

scrutiny, the FEC’s attempted justifications can not support section 441c’s 

unequal treatment for individual contractors such as plaintiffs.

CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons and those presented in appellants’ opening 

brief, the judgment of the District Court should be reversed, and judgment 

entered for plaintiffs.

Respectfully submitted,

Alan B. Morrison

George Washington University

Law School

2000 H Street NW

Washington D. C. 20052

(202) 994 7120

(202) 994 5157 (Fax)

abmorrison@law.gwu.edu

Arthur B. Spitzer

American Civil Liberties Union 

 of the Nation’s Capital

4301 Connecticut Ave, N.W., 

 Suite 434

Washington, D.C. 20008

(202) 457 0800

(202) 457 0805 (fax)

artspitzer@aclu-nca.org

Counsel for Plaintiffs-Appellants

Corrected March 11, 2013

USCA Case #12-5365 Document #1424661 Filed: 03/11/2013 Page 26 of 28
No. 12-5365

___________________________

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

___________________________

WENDY E. WAGNER, et al.,

Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION,

Defendant-Appellee.

___________________________

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 32(a)(7)(C), I hereby 

certify this 11th day of March 2013 that the foregoing Reply Brief of 

Plaintiffs-Appellants, has a type face of 14 points and, as calculated by my 

word-processing software (Microsoft Word), contains 4782 words.

/s/ Alan B. Morrison

Alan B. Morrison

George Washington University

Law School

2000 H Street NW

Washington D. C. 20052

USCA Case #12-5365 Document #1424661 Filed: 03/11/2013 Page 27 of 28
No. 12-5365

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that I served and filed the Corrected Reply Brief of 

the Plaintiffs-Appellants this 11th day of March 2013 with the Clerk of the 

Court of United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by using the 

Court’s CM/ECF system. Service was made on the following through the 

CM/ECF system:

Seth Nesin J. Gerald Hebert

Federal Election Commission The Campaign Legal Center

999 E Street, NW 215 E. Street, NE

Washington, DC 20463 Washington DC 20002

Counsel for the FEC Counsel for Amici

Copies of this Reply Brief were also served by first class mail on 

Counsel for the Federal Election Commission and Counsel for Amici on this 

date.

/s/ Alan B. Morrison

Alan B. Morrison

George Washington University

Law School

2000 H Street NW

Washington D. C. 20052

USCA Case #12-5365 Document #1424661 Filed: 03/11/2013 Page 28 of 28