On August 19, U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby upheld several Maine campaign finance laws, but also struck down two features of those laws.  Here is the 37-page decision in National Organization for Marriage v McKee, 09-538.

The laws that were struck down are:  (1) a requirement that independent expenditures in excess of $250 per candidate must be reported within 24 hours; (2) Maine’s definition of “Political Action Committee” (PAC), which is too vague to be constitutional.  The definition for a non-major-purpose PAC is an organization that spends money “for the purpose of promoting, defeating or influencing in any way the nomination or election of any candidate to political office.”  The decision says that definition makes it difficult for an organization to know whether it must register as a PAC or not.  Therefore, it is void for vagueness.