Thanks to reporting by Independent Voter Network, we have learned that U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled against Level the Playing Field and co-plaintiffs Dr. Peter Ackerman, the Libertarian Party, and Green Party of the U.S. late last month.
This years-long lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission for going along with the Commission on Presidential Debates in their efforts to limit the presidential debates to major party candidates has been seen as the best chance at forcing open these critical debates once and for all. One reason for optimism was that Judge Chutkan had previously ruled against the FEC, forcing them to reconsider their rulemaking in light of the plaintiffs’ evidence.
This time around, Chutkan found that the FEC’s decisions were based on reasoned decision-making and were not “arbititrary, capricious, or otherwise contrary to law.”
“We are extremely disappointed with the district court’s decision and plan to appeal,” said Level the Playing Field’s Peter Ackerman, according to a statement in the IVN article.
“The health of our democracy depends on robust competition, which is being unfairly stifled by the two major parties through the Commission on Presidential Debates and the Federal Election Commission. The current debate rule discriminates against candidates who are unaffiliated with the Democratic and Republican parties. No independent can realistically compete for president without this rule changing. There are many other possible rules that would be more democratic, more accurate, fairer and more competitive than what we have now, but the CPD refuses to consider them, and the FEC enables their collusive, anticompetitive practices. 72% of the American people think it is important for an independent or third party candidate to participate in the presidential debates, and we intend to continue our efforts to help make that possible.”