FEC Got Sued for Being Useless and the Judge Basically Said Yup

A federal judge had to remind the Federal Election Commission that “enforcing election law” isn’t an optional side quest.

In 2025, a district court ruled the FEC improperly dismissed a dark money complaint tied to the 2024 Montana Senate race — aka one more episode of America’s longest-running reality show, Who Bought This Politician?

Here’s the scam: the FEC has six commissioners, and it takes four votes to do basically anything. So if four of them decide enforcement is cringe, the agency deadlocks itself into a decorative houseplant.

Campaign Legal Center says one bloc of four commissioners has repeatedly blocked enforcement, including cases involving coordination — that cute little dance where candidates and “independent” groups swear they’re not together while sharing the same consultants, the same scripts, and probably the same GroupMe.

The court basically told the FEC it can’t just wave away complaints when the paperwork is screaming. Which is a wild thing to need a judge for, like getting a court order so your dishwasher agrees to wash dishes.

And yeah, this matters even if you can’t find Montana on a map. Because when dark money gets to freestyle, your rent, your healthcare, your wages, and your rights all become line items in someone else’s donor spreadsheet.