Shaun McCutcheon, a wealthy individual who lives in Alabama, declared on May 7, 2020, that he was seeking the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. He put $65,000 of his own funds in his own campaign account. The Libertarian Party nominated in late May 2020, and did not nominate McCutcheon. McCutcheon still had $50,000 unspent campaign funds in his own account. He asked the Federal Election Commission if he could legally transfer that money to the Libertarian National Committee.

The FEC refused to answer his request, citing a lack of a quorum. Federal Law requires the FEC to issue such advisory opinions. On September 4, McCutcheon filed a federal lawsuit against the FEC, requesting that the court either force the FEC to answer his question, or for the judge to answer it instead. Here is the Complaint.

McCutcheon points out that Michael Bloomberg also had a short-lived quest in 2020 for the Democratic nomination. After Bloomberg dropped out of the Democratic race, he donated $18,000,000 of his own campaign funds to the Democratic National Committee. No FEC enforcement was taken against Bloomberg for that donation, even though federal law doesn’t permit individuals to donate more than $37,000 in any calendar year to the general treasury of an FEC-recognized national committee. McCutcheon wants to know if Bloomberg’s donation was legal or not. If the answer is that it is legal, then McCutcheon will feel legally free to make his $50,000 donation to the Libertarian National Committee.