Robert McChesney v. Caroline C. Hunter
Opinion
COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.
*582 In 2015, the Federal Election Commission imposed a civil penalty of $12,122 on Robert McChesney as treasurer for Bart McLeay's campaign for United States Senate in Nebraska. The Commission found that McChesney failed to file certain notices of campaign contributions that must be reported within 48 hours. McChesney does not dispute the facts of the filing violation, but he sued on the ground that the Commission lacked authority to impose the penalty. The district court 2 dismissed the action, and we affirm.
I.
The Federal Election Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over civil enforcement of federal campaign finance laws.
The Commission promulgated the penalty schedule and regulations implementing the administrative fine program in May 2000.
Administrative Fines
,
Congress amended the sunset provision several times, including most recently in December 2013. At that time, Congress extended authority for the administrative fine program to include violations through December 31, 2018. Pub. L. 113-72, § 1,
*583
exception of the APA,
McChesney served as the treasurer for Bart McLeay's Senate campaign in Nebraska during the 2014 primary election. Following the primary election, the Commission notified McChesney that it intended to impose a civil monetary penalty under the administrative fine program. The Commission asserted that McChesney had failed to submit certain notices required by
McChesney challenged the penalty in the district court. He argued that the Commission never validly established the 2014 penalty schedule. He complained that the Commission, among other things, adopted the 2014 extension without conducting a new evaluative review of the penalty schedule, holding a public meeting, or complying with its tally vote procedure. In response to the Commission's motion to dismiss, McChesney objected that the Commission had not yet provided a full administrative record. The district court rejected each of McChesney's arguments and granted the Commission's motion to dismiss.
We review a district court's grant of a motion to dismiss
de novo
. "To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to 'state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.' "
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
,
II.
As a preliminary matter, McChesney argues that the district court contravened the APA by dismissing his challenge without first requiring the Commission to submit the complete administrative record. The APA, however, is not so exacting; it provides that "the court shall review the whole record
or those parts of it cited by a party
."
On a motion to dismiss, a court "must primarily consider the allegations in the complaint, although matters of public and administrative record referenced in the complaint may also be taken into account."
Deerbrook Pavilion, LLC v. Shalala
,
III.
The Commission also presents a preliminary issue. It contends that McChesney did not bring a proper challenge because he did not assert one of the three grounds enumerated in the Commission's regulation on challenges to a civil penalty,
IV.
McChesney's challenge to the fine turns on statutory language that the Commission may impose a fine "under a schedule of penalties
which is established and published by the Commission
."
A.
McChesney first contends that the Commission did not establish the 2014 penalty schedule because the Commission did not conduct what he calls a new "evaluative review" before publishing it. He observes that § 30109(a)(4)(C)(i)(II) requires that the Commission's penalty schedule take into account certain factors, including the amount of the violation involved and the existence of any previous violations by the individual, and "such other factors as the Commission considers appropriate." He then urges that Congress, by including a series of sunset provisions for the administrative fine program, commanded the Commission to conduct a new "evaluative review" of these statutory factors every time the program was set to expire.
We are not convinced that the statute required the Commission in 2014 to conduct the sort of evaluative review that McChesney seeks. The text of § 30109(a)(4)(C)(i)(II) requires only that the schedule take into account the listed statutory factors. The Commission's previously established penalty schedule took those factors into account. The same schedule continued to take the factors into account when the Commission republished it in January 2014.
The sunset provision does not support McChesney's reading of the statute. The provision specifies that the administrative fine program "shall apply with respect to violations that relate to reporting periods *585 that begin on or after January 1, 2000, and that end on or before" the specified expiration date. § 30109(a)(4)(C)(v). This language shows that Congress considered the program to operate over a single uninterrupted period beginning on January 1, 2000. The 2013 amendment of the sunset provision merely substituted "December 31, 2018" for "December 31, 2013," in what the law characterized as an "extension" of the program. Pub. L. 113-72, § 1, 127 Stat. at 1210. By increasing the duration of the administrative fine program from 2013 to 2018, Congress allowed the Commission to continue the regulations that were previously adopted. The extension did not require the Commission to conduct a new "evaluative review."
B.
McChesney next contends that the Commission did not "establish" the 2014 penalty schedule because it did not adopt the schedule in a public meeting. According to McChesney, the Sunshine Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552b, and the Commission's regulations implementing the Sunshine Act,
The Sunshine Act, subject to exceptions not relevant here, states that "every portion of every meeting of an agency shall be open to public observation." 5 U.S.C. § 552b(b). But the Sunshine Act "does not require that meetings be held in order to conduct agency business; rather, that statute requires only that, if meetings are held, they be open to the public."
R.R. Comm'n of Tex. v. United States
,
The Commission also did not violate its own regulations. Consistent with the Sunshine Act, the Commission's regulations require that "every portion of every Commission meeting shall be open to public observation."
McChesney argues that adoption of the 2014 penalty schedule was not a "routine" matter, and that the notational voting therefore was a "meeting" that should have been open to the public. Drawing on decisions under the Freedom of Information Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, McChesney asserts that "routine" matters are those in which the "public could not reasonably be expected to have an interest" or those of "merely internal significance."
See
Dep't of the Air Force v. Rose
,
*586 The Commission therefore did not violate its rules implementing the Sunshine Act when it adopted the 2014 penalty schedule by notational voting without a public meeting.
In any event, a violation of the Sunshine Act or its implementing regulations would not undermine the validity of the 2014 penalty schedule. An agency's violation of the Sunshine Act does not provide a basis for setting aside the agency's action; the ordinary relief would be an injunction against future violations or an order to produce a transcript of the non-public meeting.
See
5 U.S.C. § 552b(h) ;
Pan Am. World Airways, Inc. v. CAB
,
McChesney seeks to avoid this general rule by disavowing any request for a remedy under the Sunshine Act. He asserts that if the Commission failed to comply with the Sunshine Act, then it did not "establish" the 2014 schedule "in accordance with law," and the court should thus set aside the schedule. But the Sunshine Act undermines McChesney's reasoning. The Act clarifies that nothing in § 552b authorizes a reviewing court, solely on the basis of a Sunshine Act violation, "to set aside, enjoin, or invalidate any agency action (other than an action to close a meeting or to withhold information under this section) taken or discussed at any agency meeting out of which the violation of this section arose."
One court, citing legislative history, suggested that a court may grant broader relief when a violation of the Sunshine Act is serious, intentional, and prejudicial to the rights of a person involved in the agency proceeding.
See
Pan Am.
,
C.
McChesney's third submission is that the Commission did not "establish" the 2014 penalty schedule because it failed to comply with the tally vote procedure set forth in the Commission's Directive 52. As of 2014, Directive 52 provided that "[v]otes on circulations may only be made via a signed ballot delivered to the Commission Secretary's Office." Directive 52 ¶ IV (2008). McChesney contends that under this procedure, each commissioner was required to return a marked and signed paper ballot to authorize the 2014 extension of the administrative fine program. Because there is no record of any returned paper ballots for the vote, McChesney concludes that the Commission failed to establish the 2014 penalty schedule.
The lack of returned paper ballots, however, does not give rise to a plausible claim that the Commission failed to comply with Directive 52. The phrase "signed ballot delivered" in Directive 52 did not require a paper document. Electronic signatures and electronic delivery were well known in the law before 2008.
See, e.g.
, Electronic Signatures in Global & National Commerce Act, Pub. L. 106-229, § 101,
* * *
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
The Honorable Laurie Smith Camp, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.
McChesney's opening brief did not meaningfully argue that the Commission failed to comply with the notice-and-comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, so this contention is waived despite argument in his reply brief.
Chay-Velasquez v. Ashcroft
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Robert C. MCCHESNEY, in His Official Capacity as Treasurer of Bart McLeay for U.S. Senate, Inc.; Bart McLeay for U.S. Senate, Inc., Plaintiffs - Appellants, v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION, Defendant - Appellee, Caroline C. Hunter, in Her Official Capacity as Chair of the Federal Election Commission, Defendant - Appellee, United States of America, Defendant.
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published