On July 1, 2013, Dan LaBotz filed this new lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. This is the second time LaBotz has sued. He won the first case, which is LaBotz v FEC, 889 F.Supp.2d 51 (September 5, 2012). In the first decision, the court ordered to FEC to re-examine his complaint against the Ohio News Organization, which sponsored U.S. Senate general election debates in 2010 and invited only the Democrat and Republican, and had no objective criteria explaining how candidates might qualify for the debates. The Ohio News Organization is a corporation, and corporations can’t contribute to candidates for federal office. So by hosting a debate with no objective criteria, the Ohio News Organization was making a corporate contribution to the two candidates that were invited, Rob Portman and Lee Fisher.

After the first court decision, the FEC looked at the matter again but decided to do nothing, so the second lawsuit has now been filed.