On March 19, U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Wilkins ruled that the Libertarian Party’s campaign finance case involving a bequest to the party can be certified to the entire panel of U.S. Court of Appeals Judges in the D.C. Circuit. The decision is 28 pages, followed by 20 pages of Findings of Fact.

The question certified to the U.S. Court of Appeals is, “Does imposing annual contribution limits against the bequest of Raymond Groves Burrington violate the First Amendment rights of the Libertarian Party?” This will be the first time any minor party has ever had any election law appeal before all the judges of the D.C. Circuit (excepting cases in which one or both of the major parties were also in the case). Such panels are rare, but the federal campaign law does say that substantial constitutional questions concerning the 1974 Federal campaign finance law must be certified to the full set of judges. The Federal Election Commission had argued that the Libertarian Party’s lawsuit is not substantial enough to go to those judges.

Judge Wilkins disagreed with the way the Libertarian Party had framed the question to be decided by the D.C. Circuit, so he exercised his right to re-frame the question. The Libertarian Party thought the proper question was whether any bequest to a political party, received by the party after the death of the donor, could be restricted. But Judge Wilkins narrowed the question down to this particular case. A very important fact in this case is that Burrington, who left the Libertarian Party $217,734 in his will, had not told the Libertarian Party that he was planning to leave the money to the party. Furthermore, in his entire lifetime, he had only given $25 to the party. This is an important fact, because it shows that (as the decision says) “the anti-corruption interests that would be implicated by allowing the Libertarian National Committee to receive the entire bequest all at once may be minimal.” By contrast, the judge, and others, can imagine a situation in which a dying individual promises to leave a great deal of money to a political party on the condition that the party carry out certain campaign activities that would benefit the individual while he was alive, or might benefit his or her other heirs.