Political groups tied to a Republican state lawmaker filed a lawsuit Friday that challenges the legality of a referendum that Maine voters overwhelmingly approved in November to limit donations to committees that can spend freely in candidate elections.
The lawsuit from Dinner Table Action, a political action committee connected to Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, and For Our Future, a related group run by activist Alex Titcomb, is the first to challenge the referendum that limits individuals and groups to donating $5,000 per year to committees that make so-called independent expenditures for or against candidates.
Litigation was always expected after Maine voters passed Question 1 last month as part of a narrowly crafted effort from Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 that allowed no limits on super PAC spending. Higher courts may have to rule again on the legality of Maine’s law and similar ones.
The new lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court names Maine Ethics Commission members and Attorney General Aaron Frey as defendants. It cites the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling and other federal court decisions to claim the Maine referendum has no “validity,” adding it “suppresses this classic method of speech.”
“All Americans, not just those running for office, have a fundamental First Amendment right to talk about political campaigns,” the lawsuit says. “Their ‘independent expenditures,’ payments that fund political expression by those who are not running for office but nonetheless have something to say about a campaign, are a vital feature of our democracy.”
Frey spokesperson Danna Hayes said the attorney general’s office does not comment on pending litigation. Ethics Commission Executive Director Jonathan Wayne said the commission is reviewing the complaint and otherwise has no comment.
Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, proclaimed the vote on Question 1 and other election results on Nov. 25, meaning the referendum will take effect late this month.
The top donor to For Our Future has been a nonprofit tied to conservative legal titan Leonard Leo, who owns a home on Mount Desert Island. The lawsuit does not name any individual donors but says Dinner Table Action raised more than $454,000 during the 2024 cycle, with more than a third of that coming from people or groups that donated more than $5,000 in a year.
For Our Future currently has about $40,000 on hand that all came from one donor the lawsuit does not name. The lawsuit claims Question 1 violates the groups’ First and 14th amendments covering free speech and equal protection rights.
And because For Our Future “has been exclusively funded” by donations exceeding $5,000, the lawsuit argues the referendum will “cripple” its ability to raise and spend funds.
The recently passed referendum would also require PACs to disclose the names of donors. The lawsuit says several contributors told Titcomb they would not donate to Dinner Table Action if their identities would become public.
The lawsuit notes Maine law defines a PAC as any entity that makes or receives donations totaling more than $2,500 in a year in order to influence the nomination or election of any political candidate. Political committees and individuals are also limited to giving up to $1,950 to a gubernatorial candidate, $475 to a legislative candidate, $575 to a municipal candidate and $975 to any other candidate under Maine law, with limits adjusted for inflation every two years.
Violators can face a Class E misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and maximum fines of $1,000 for individuals and $10,000 for organizations. The Ethics Commission can collect the penalties or refer violators who fail to pay to the attorney general’s office.
Titcomb’s and Libby’s groups are represented by attorneys Joshua Dunlap of Pierce Atwood in Portland and Charles “Chip” Miller of the Institute for Free Speech, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that has worked nationally to oppose limits on political donations.
“This law is a direct attack on Mainers’ fundamental constitutional rights,” Miller said in a statement.
