Federal Election Commission Releases Enforcement Files On Catholic Group's Robocalls

BNA's Daily Report for Executives [subscription required] reports that on Nov. 25, the Federal Election Commission released documents in an enforcement case against Informed Catholic Citizens (ICC), a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization.  The  case grew out of a complaint (full text) filed in 2008 by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. At issue were robocalls featuring a Catholic priest supporting John McCain over Barack Obama in the Presidential election because of their respective positions on abortion.  In January 2011, the FEC voted unanimously that the call involved express advocacy and there was reason to believe that ICC had violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by failing to report an independent expenditure and failing to include a disclaimer stating that ICC had paid for the call. (FEC Certification). A General Counsel's Report concluded, however, that because of the low dollar amount at issue, no further action should be taken.  A vote of the FEC in October split 3-3 on that recommendation. Instead the Commission voted 5-0 to send ICC a letter of caution and close the file. However on Oct. 21, the 3 Democratic members of the Commission released a Statement of Reasons why they preferred to seek a statutory penalty of $7500 against ICC. They contended that "while the call may have been relatively inexpensive, it appears to have reached almost 70,000 recipients."