Auburn Rep Files Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality of PAC Fundraising Restrictions

State Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a recent change in Maine law that established fundraising limits for political action committees (PACs) led by legislators known as “leadership PACs.”

In a press release sent Wednesday, Libby said she has challenged 21-A MRSA 1056-C, a new law that restricts individual contributions to leadership PACs to just $475 per year. The campaign finance law also prohibits any contributions to these PACs from business entities.

In 2021, Rep. Libby was one of the co-founders of the Dinner Table PAC, a committee that spent more than $450,000 backing Republican candidates in the 2022 election cycle.

“These rules have already caused me to cancel events and turn down donations for fear of criminal sanctions. This law interferes with the right of Mainers to have their voices heard,” Libby said in the press release.

In 2021 and 2022, the Dinner Table PAC received several contributions larger than the new limit. Under the current rules, those contributions would be prohibited.

Libby’s lawsuit alleges that these restrictions violate both the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, claiming that because traditional and “caucus” PACs are exempt from the fundraising restrictions, the law penalizes legislators who lack leadership positions and results in unequal protection under the law.

Libby’s press release states that these restrictions “hobble her and most of her colleagues’ freedom to participate in the political process through PACs.”

“Speech rights shouldn’t be subject to whims or approval of a tiny group of leaders,” Libby said. “Everyday Mainers shouldn’t be limited in their ability to support a political cause based on which lawmaker leads that cause, and my colleagues and I should have the same right to speak and fundraise as House and Senate leaders do.”

The press release goes on to explain that four specific Maine legislators benefit from the exceptions to the PAC restrictions: the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate and the minority leaders in each house.

“Laws that limit the amount of money a person may give to these committees intrude upon the First Amendment freedoms of speech and association,” said Charles Miller, senior attorney at the Institute of Free Speech, a nonprofit group representing Libby and her co-plaintiffs.

“These limits not only infringe on the rights of donors, but on the rights of advocacy groups and the people who operate them as well, including Representative Libby,” he said.

Libby’s lawsuit demands an immediate injunction to prevent the enforcement of the contribution limits, as well as for the relevant provisions of the law to be declared unconstitutional.

On May 4, the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee voted “Ought to Pass” on a proposal from Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Androscoggin) that would repeal the restriction on donations from business.