Opinion ID: 2494205
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Standing to Challenge Major-Purpose PAC Provision

Text: It is plain that NOM has no objectively reasonable apprehension of being regulated as a major-purpose PAC. Among other things, a major-purpose PAC must have as its major purpose initiating, promoting, defeating or influencing a candidate election, campaign or ballot question in Maine. Me.Rev.Stat. tit. 21-A, § 1052(5)(A)(4). NOM identifies itself as a nonprofit advocacy organization with a national scope, dedicated to providing organized opposition to same-sex marriage in state legislatures. NOM's advocacy efforts and expenditures have spanned the country, with significant expenditures in California, Iowa, New York, and New Hampshire, among others. In 2009, the year of NOM's largest expenditures in Maine (made to support repeal of Maine's same-sex marriage law), NOM spent $1.8 million in Maine out of $8 million in total expenditures for the year. In light of this record, NOM does not have as its major purpose election advocacy in Maine, and it is accordingly not subject to regulation as a major-purpose PAC. NOM therefore lacks standing to challenge § 1052(5)(a)(4).