DC court paves the way for political dark money to get even darker

A new ruling on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) could pave the way for more untraceable donations in politics this week, closing off a key avenue for watchdogs to peer into FEC rulings.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday refused to reconsider its 2021 decision to block courts from reviewing FEC rulings and prevent private watchdog groups from issuing challenges to certain decisions, the Washington Post reported Thursday. The court's opinion argues that judges have no authority to challenge the FEC's invocation of "prosecutorial discretion" when defending its decisions not to pursue a given case.

Prosecutorial discretion refers to the authority of prosecutors to determine the extent of enforcement of a given law.

Since the courts cannot rule on such decisions, private groups seeking to scrutinize spending cases have no avenue to bring challenges against decisions the FEC defends under prosecutorial discretion. Activists argue this opens a clear road for defending all sorts of dark money donations, according to WaPo.