On September 5, the Libertarian National Committee filed this 27-page brief in Libertarian National Committee v Federal Election Commission, U.S. District Court, D.C., 1:16cv-121. The issue is whether it is constitutional for the federal government to prevent the party from receiving a bequest of amounts greater than $33,900 in any one year.

The case arose when Joseph Shaber died in 2014 and left the Libertarian Party a bequest of $235,575. The FEC said the money must mostly be put in an escrow account, and doled out at the rate of $33,900 per year.

This is the second such lawsuit. The first one, when Raymond Burrington died and left the party $217,734, took so long to adjudicate, the money had all been possessed by the party before it was over, so it was declared moot. This case was filed in 2016 and is likely to be quicker, because some of the issues were already settled in the first lawsuit.

This new case is stronger than the last one, because in late 2014, Congress passed a budget bill that said national political parties could receive contributions almost ten times higher, if the money was used for one of three purposes: legal, national convention expenses, or headquarters expenses. The party argues that if such big contributions are now legal if a party wants to use the money just for those purposes, then a general gift to such a party can’t possibly cause corruption.

At this stage of the case, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell must decide whether to send this case to an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit.

New York voters will decide in a few months whether to call a state constitutional convention. This Village Voice article explains the process and also explains what changes might be made, if a convention is called and the convention writes a draft that makes significant changes (and then the voters would need to approve the new constitution).

New York doesn’t have the statewide initiative process, but conceivably a new constitution could add one.