On May 14, U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates, a Bush Jr. appointee, ruled against the Democratic National Committee in its lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission. The Democratic National Committee had filed the lawsuit on April 14, saying that the FEC (which has no quorum) will never be able to resolve the Democratic Party’s complaint that John McCain is violating federal campaign laws. But the Judge said the law requires the federal courts to abstain from such lawsuits until the FEC has had the matter for 120 days. He said the fact that the FEC has no quorum is no excuse to disregard that law. The decision is only 5 pages long and can be read at http://electionlawblog.org, Rick Hasen’s law blog.