'Major Victory': Federal Judge Issues Game-Changing Ruling on Dark Money

An ethics watchdog has claimed a “major court victory” after a federal judge issued a ruling invalidating a Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulation that allowed contributors to so-called dark money organizations avoid disclosure.

“This ruling looks like a major game changer,” said Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “Based on this ruling, the public should know a whole lot more about who is giving money for the purpose of influencing an election, and it will be much harder for donors to anonymously contribute to groups that advertise in elections.”

CREW was a plaintiff in the case, and had challenged in 2012 Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS—a “not-political committee”—over its failure to disclose who donated $6 million in the Ohio Senate race, a sum CREW argued was subject to federal reporting requirements.

U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell found that Crossroads GPS’s defense didn’t hold water, writing Friday that the three-decade old FEC regulation at question fell short “of the broad disclosure that Congress intended.”

The challenged regulation, she concluded, can facilitate groups’ “routing” of contributions to candidates or the groups’ affiliated super PACS, and