On October 22, the Federal Election Commission said it will not ask the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, to reconsider its September 18 decision in Emily’s List v FEC, no. 08-5422. The Court had invalidated FEC regulations that impose a $5,000 limit on how much an individual may contribute to non-profit organizations that make independent expenditures for or against a candidate for federal office. It is conceivable, but not likely, that the decision could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news.

As a result of the decision, political parties are the only non-corporate organizations that may not receive more than a fixed amount of money from individuals, for the purpose of spending on independent expenditures for or against a particular federal candidate.

On October 22, a Marist poll was released for the New York city Mayoral election. It shows Mike Bloomberg (Republican, Independence) at 52%, William Thompson (Democratic, Working Families) at 36%, “Other” at 7%, and undecided at 5%. See this story.

On October 16, the major TV networks, and the Associated Press, filed a federal lawsuit to regain the ability to post exit pollsters near New Jersey polling places. The case has a hearing on October 23 at 10 a.m. in U.S. District Court in Trenton. Recently the State Supreme Court of New Jersey had issued an opinion that says even exit pollsters are not immune from the state law that forbids electioneering within 100 feet of the polls on election day. That had been the first court decision to rule against exit polling. The federal case is moving quickly because exit pollsters wish to work on November 3, 2009, in the gubernatorial election.