Russ Feingold: “In the next few days a decision will be made whether to seek a stay of the district court's decision. I think the…”

“In the next few days a decision will be made whether to seek a stay of the district court's decision. I think the arguments for such a stay are strong. The parties have been working under the new campaign finance rules since November of last year. To shift to another system for a few months while the Supreme Court reviews the case only to shift again when the Supreme Court rules, whatever its decision might be, does not make much sense. It would be preferable for a variety of reasons to keep things the way they are now until the Supreme Court makes a final decision. That decision should come in plenty of time for the parties to prepare for the upcoming elections. One of the main arguments for a stay is that in order to put the district court's decision in place, the FEC would almost certainly have to undertake a whole new set of rulemaking proceedings. The FEC worked to put implementing regulations in place in a timely manner, as instructed by the new law. Many of those regulations are not particularly useful under the law established by the district court's decision. In any event, I call on the parties to act with restraint, especially until the courts rule on any requests for a stay. As I mentioned at the outset, we have always known that this case was headed to the Supreme Court. I am pleased that the decision of the three judge panel has come down and that the final stage of this legal process can now begin.”