On March 17, the Libertarian National Committee filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia against the part of the McCain-Feingold law that limits how much money a political party may receive in any one calendar year from a bequest from a deceased individual. Here is the complaint. The case is Libertarian National Committee v Federal Election Commission, cv11-562.

Raymond Burrington, a resident of Tennessee, died on April 26, 2007. His will left $217,734 to the Libertarian Party. The McCain-Feingold law limits contributions to national committees of political parties to $30,800 per year, and no exception is made for bequests. The party cannot receive its bequest now, but can only receive the allowed annual amount in any given year. In the meantime most of the bequest sits in a trust account. The justification for limits on how much money anyone can give to a party is that if there were no limit, a wealthy individual might bribe a member of Congress, or the President, by promising to give a very large amount of money to that office-holder’s political party. The U.S. Supreme Court has not recognized any other legal justification for such limits. The lawsuit argues that the justification for limits makes no sense when the donor is deceased.

The lawsuit also challenges the part of the McCain-Feingold law that has been interpreted to make it illegal for political parties to ask for large bequests. The case was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Wilkins, an Obama appointee.