Federal Election Commission v. Florida for Kennedy Committee

681 F.2d 1281, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 16918

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• Decided: August 2, 1982
• Docket: 80-6013
• Status: Published

Opinions

VANCE, Circuit Judge:

This appeal presents delicate issues concerning the permissible scope of the Federal Election Commission’s subpoena power. The Commission served a sweeping subpoena upon Appellant Florida for Kennedy Committee (FKC) as part of an investigation into the 1979 activities of nine “draft-Kennedy” organizations around the country. FKC refused to comply and, upon petition by the Commission, the district court enforced the subpoena. Although this case is one of first impression in this circuit, the questions presented here have been thoroughly considered by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit in a companion case to this one. See Federal Election Commission v. Machinists Non-Partisan Political League, 655 F.2d 380 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 897, 102 S.Ct. 397, 70 L.Ed.2d 213 (1981). We substantially agree with that court and conclude that the activities of the Florida for Kennedy Committee are outside the jurisdiction of the Federal Election Commission. Accordingly, we reverse the order enforcing the subpoena.

I.

In May 1979 a group of Florida citizens formed FKC, the sole purpose of which was to encourage Senator Edward M. Kennedy to seek the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. FKC was one of numerous draft-Kennedy groups that sprang up nationwide during the spring of 1979, all of which were ostensibly independent. Its stated goal was to influence the outcome of a nonbinding straw poll that was to be held at the Florida State Democratic Convention in November 1979. FKC hoped that a strong pro-Kennedy vote in this party referendum would persuade Senator Kennedy to declare his candidacy for the party nomination.

Throughout the spring and summer of 1979, FKC solicited contributions and expended fairly large sums of money in its effort to convince Senator Kennedy to run. A major contributor to FKC was the Machinists Non-Partisan Political League (MNPL), the political action arm of the International Association of Machinists. Despite having supported the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976, the MNPL had become disenchanted with the policies of the Carter Administration and by February 1979 had begun actively supporting the formation and operation of various draft-Kennedy groups around the country. Between May and November 1979 the MNPL contributed over $30,000 to different draft-Kennedy groups, including FKC. Although FKC labored throughout the summer on his behalf, Senator Kennedy continued to support President Carter and at least once specifically disavowed its activities. On October 29, 1979, however, Senator Kennedy announced his candidacy for the party nomination and the activities of FKC ceased.

On October 4, 1979 the Carter-Mondale Presidential Committee, Inc. filed a complaint with the FEC. The complaint alleged that FKC was a political committee within the meaning of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971¹ and was affiliated with the eight other draft-Kennedy groups that had accepted contributions from the MNPL. See 2 U.S.C. §§ 431(d), 433, 441a(a)(5). The Carter-Mondale complaint alleged that FKC had violated the campaign laws by failing to disclose its affiliation with the other draft-Kennedy groups. The Carter-Mondale committee further complained that these allegedly affiliated draft-Kennedy groups were subject to a combined contribution restriction of $5,000 per contributor, a restriction that had been violated when the MNPL gave a combined total of more than $30,000 to the various groups.² See 2 U.S.C. §§ 441a(a)(2)(C), 441a(f).

On October 19,1979 the Commission notified FKC that it had “reason to believe” that violations of the federal campaign laws had occurred. In accord with the Commission’s procedures, FKC moved on November 1, 1979 to dismiss the Carter-Mondale complaint, arguing that FKC was a draft committee and not a political committee within the meaning of the Act. Consequently, FKC argued, neither the Act’s reporting requirements nor contribution limitations applied to it. The FEC did not rule immediately on this motion, but instead, on November 5, 1979 served the sweeping agency subpoena that is the basis of this appeal.³ FKC moved to quash the subpoena. On November 29, 1979 the FEC denied both motions.

On December 24,1979, after FKC refused to comply with the Commission’s subpoena, the FEC instituted the present action to enforce its subpoena in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. FKC sought a plenary hearing to challenge the scope of the FEC’s jurisdiction over draft groups. On May 2, 1980, however, the district court ruled that the subpoena enforcement proceeding was not the proper forum in which to challenge the FEC’s jurisdiction or to raise constitutional objections to the subpoena. 492 F.Supp. 587. The court subsequently enforced the subpoena on November 6, 1980 and this appeal followed.

II.

The FEC argues that FKC cannot properly contest the subpoena in the enforcement proceedings below. The FEC contends that because the investigation was arguably within the scope of its statutory duties, the information sought by the subpoena was relevant to its investigation, and the subpoena was not overly broad or indefinite the court correctly enforced the FEC subpoena summarily. See United States v. Morton Salt Co., 338 U.S. 632, 652, 70 S.Ct. 357, 368, 94 L.Ed. 401 (1950).

In granting the exclusive power to enforce administrative subpoenas to the federal courts,⁴ Congress manifested its intention that the courts exercise independent judgment in evaluating agency subpoenas. See United States v. Security State Bank & Trust, 473 F.2d 638, 641 (5th Cir. 1973).⁵ To avoid delays that might paralyze an agency’s ability to investigate, however, the federal courts have created a self-imposed limitation upon the degree to which they will scrutinize agency requests to enforce subpoenas. See Hannah v. Larche, 363 U.S. 420, 443-44, 80 S.Ct. 1502, 1515, 4 L.Ed.2d 1307 (1960). As a general rule, an administrative subpoena should be enforced “if the inquiry is within the authority of the agency, the demand is not too indefinite and the information sought is reasonably relevant.” United States v. Morton Salt Co., 338 U.S. at 652, 70 S.Ct. at 368.

The salutary policies of judicial and administrative efficiency that underlie the Morton Salt rule do not, however, require that the courts limit their scrutiny of agency subpoena requests in every case. Cf. Federal Election Commission v. Lance, 617 F.2d 365, 369 (5th Cir. 1980) (courts should examine policies behind summary enforcement of subpoenas), supplemental opinion, 635 F.2d 1132 (5th Cir.) (en banc), appeal dismissed and cert. denied, 453 U.S. 917, 101 S.Ct. 3151, 69 L.Ed.2d 999 (1981). We agree with the District of Columbia circuit that this subpoena has several characteristics that make it necessary for the court to be certain of the FEC’s investigative authority before enforcing it, although such scrutiny may entail some delay in enforcement. See Federal Election Commission v. Machinists Non-Partisan Political League, 655 F.2d at 386.

First, the activities that the FEC seeks to investigate differ profoundly in terms of constitutional significance from the activities that are generally the subject of investigation by other federal administrative agencies. The sole purpose of the FEC is to regulate activities involving political expression, the same activities that are the primary object of the first amendment’s protection. The risks involved in government regulation of political expression are certainly evident here. The FEC subpoena seeks disclosure of all members and volunteers of FKC, an organization the express purpose of which is to defeat the incumbent President. As the Supreme Court stated long ago:

It is hardly a novel perception that compelled disclosure of affiliation with groups engaged in advocacy may constitute [an] effective . .. restraint on freedom of association .... This Court has recognized the vital relationship between freedom to associate and privacy in one’s associations.... Inviolability of privacy in group association may in many circumstances be indispensible to preservation of freedom of association ....

NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 462, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 1171, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958), quoted in Federal Election Commission v. Machinists Non-Partisan Political League, 655 F.2d at 389; see also Marshall v. Stevens People & Friends for Freedom, 669 F.2d 171, 176-79 (4th Cir. 1981) (court closely scrutinizes administrative subpoena implicating first amendment rights notwithstanding general rule of Morton Salt), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 102 S.Ct. 1432, 71 L.Ed.2d 651 (1982). The Supreme Court has also made it clear that a higher degree of scrutiny must attach before courts can compel disclosure of information that may impinge upon these first amendment associational rights:

It is particularly important that the exercise of the power of compulsory process be carefully circumscribed when the investigative process tends to impinge upon such highly sensitive areas as freedom of speech or press, freedom of political association, and freedom of communication of ideas ....

Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234, 245, 77 S.Ct. 1203, 1209, 1 L.Ed.2d 1311 (1957);⁶ see Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 14, 96 S.Ct. 612, 632, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976) (government impingement upon the rights of individuals to speak and associate for political purposes can be tolerated only after the most exacting judicial scrutiny).

These constitutional considerations do not, of course, preclude the FEC from investigating activities that implicate the freedom to associate. They do, however, require that the FEC prove to the satisfaction of the courts that it has statutory investigative authority over FKC. The danger of treading too quickly or too blithely upon cherished liberties is too great to demand any less of the FEC.⁷

There is an additional reason to conclude that the Morton Salt rule does not prohibit probing judicial scrutiny of the FEC’s investigative authority in this case. Unlike the typical case, the FEC’s authority to issue this subpoena can be determined without reference to any further factual development. Because the FEC has conceded that Senator Kennedy was not a candidate during the period in which the bulk of FKC’s activities occurred⁸ and that FKC was a bona fide draft group, the only issue to be resolved is purely a legal question of statutory construction: do the disclosure requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 apply to draft committees? Resolution of that issue neither requires the parties to engage in time-consuming discovery nor requires the district court to construct a lengthy record. None of the efficiency considerations favoring summary initial review, therefore, is implicated when the legal issue is distilled as it is in this ease, and nothing will be gained by postponing judicial review of that issue.⁹ See Federal Election Commission v. Machinists Non-Partisan Political League, 655 F.2d at 390; Federal Election Commission v. Lance, 617 F.2d at 374; Federal Trade Commission v. Miller, 549 F.2d 452, 460 (7th Cir. 1977); cf. NLRB v. Brown, 380 U.S. 278, 290-92, 85 S.Ct. 980, 987-88, 13 L.Ed.2d 839 (1965) (when judicial review is not of factual issue but is one of legal interpretation there is less justification for deference to agency determination); 7 J. Moore, Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 81.06[1] (1973) (court is free to be flexible in applying rules of procedure to subpoena enforcement proceedings). Accordingly, the district court erred in not inquiring into the FEC’s specific statutory jurisdiction over FKC in this case.

III.

The FEC investigation in question is to determine whether FKC was an affiliated political committee within the meaning of 2 U.S.C. § 433 and whether it was a political committee that received excess contributions from the MNPL in violation of 2 U.S.C. § 441a(f). Thus, the only asserted basis of FEC jurisdiction is its claim that FKC, an organization seeking to draft someone to become a candidate for office, is a political committee within the meaning of the Act.

The FEC urges us to focus on the express provisions of the Act to determine the meaning of political committee. The Act defines the term political committee as a committee which receives contributions or makes expenditures in excess of $1,000 per year. 2 U.S.C. § 431(d). The Act further defines an expenditure or contribution as a “gift, loan, advance, or payment of money made for the purpose of influencing the nomination for election, or the election of any person to Federal office.” 2 U.S.C. §§ 431(e), (f). The FEC argues that these statutory provisions, when considered in conjunction, require a finding that FKC is a political committee because it spent more than $1,000 to influence the Democratic party nomination. Although superficially appealing, this reading of the Act ignores contrary precedent and creates constitutional problems that could be avoided by a narrower interpretation of the Act.

The seminal case interpreting the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 is Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. at 1, 96 S.Ct. at 612, 46 L.Ed.2d at 659, which declared parts of the Act to be violative of the first amendment. As the Supreme Court has subsequently stated, “Buckley identified a single narrow exception to the rule that limits on political activity were contrary to the First Amendment. The exception relates to the perception of undue influence of large contributions to a candidate.” Citizens Against Rent Control v. City of Berkeley, - U.S. -, -, 102 S.Ct. 434, 437-38, 70 L.Ed.2d 492 (1981) (emphasis in original); see Let’s Help Florida v. McCrary, 621 F.2d 195, 199 (5th Cir. 1980). In and of itself, the Supreme Court’s construction of the Act focusing upon candidates convinces us that unauthorized groups electioneering on behalf of someone who is not yet a candidate for federal office cannot be covered by the Act. The Supreme Court’s specific discussion of the term political committee reinforces our conclusion:

To fulfill the purposes of the Act [political committees] need only encompass organizations that are under the control of a candidate or the major purpose of which is the nomination or election of a candidate. Expenditures of candidates and of “political committees” so construed can be assumed to fall within the core area sought to be addressed by Congress. They are, by definition, campaign related.

Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. at 79, 96 S.Ct. at 663 (emphasis added) (citing United States v. National Committee for Impeachment, 469 F.2d 1135, 1139-42 (2d Cir. 1972); American Civil Liberties Union, Inc. v. Jennings, 366 F.Supp. 1041, 1055-57 (D.D.C.1973) (three judge court), vacated sub nom. Staats v. American Civil Liberties Union, Inc., 442 U.S. 1030, 95 S.Ct. 2646, 45 L.Ed.2d 686 (1975)). This definition of political committee clearly forecloses the technical argument proffered by the FEC. Accordingly, FKC can be subject to the FEC’s jurisdiction only if Senator Kennedy was a candidate during the period of FKC’s activities. The FEC has conceded, however, that Senator Kennedy was not a candidate for the period relevant to this subpoena, so its efforts to extend jurisdiction over what it concedes to be purely a draft group not under the control of a candidate must fail.¹⁰

We find further support for our conclusion in longstanding canons of statutory construction. Courts are under the duty to avoid, if possible, construing a statute in a manner that creates constitutional problems. As the former fifth circuit has said before,

[i]f the interpretation complained of “presents a significant risk that the First Amendment will be infringed,” any ambiguity in the statute is construed in a manner to avoid such constitutional problems. .. . The obvious aim of this process is to avoid, if at all possible, ruling on the constitutionality of a statute. The reasons for this aversion to exercising judicial review over legislative acts have been explained many times by the Supreme Court. See, e.g., Rescue Army v. Municipal Court, 331 U.S. 549, 67 S.Ct. 1409, 91 L.Ed. 1666 (1947); Ashwander v. TVA, 297 U.S. 288, 345, 56 S.Ct. 466, 482, 80 L.Ed. 688 (1936) (Brandeis, J., concurring).

EEOC v. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 651 F.2d 277, 285 (5th Cir. 1981); accord United States v. Rumely, 345 U.S. 41, 45, 73 S.Ct. 543, 545, 97 L.Ed. 770 (1953) (quoting Crowell v. Benson, 285 U.S. 22, 62, 52 S.Ct. 285, 296, 76 L.Ed. 598 (1932)); United States v. Thomas, 567 F.2d 299, 300 (5th Cir. 1978). Suffice it to say that substantial constitutional questions would arise were we to adopt the FEC’s position and hold that draft groups such as FKC were covered by the Act. We of course intimate no opinion as to whether the extension of the Act to reach draft groups would violate the first amendment. We merely require that Congress express clearly its intent that the campaign laws sweep so broadly. As the District of Columbia circuit stated,

In this delicate first amendment area, there is no imperative to stretch the statutory language, or read into it oblique inferences of Congressional intent to include “draft” groups. Achieving a reasonable, constitutionally sound conclusion in this case requires just the opposite. “It is our duty in the interpretation of federal statutes to reach a conclusion which will avoid serious doubt of their constitutionality.” Unless, therefore, Congress made reasonably clear its intent to bring “draft” groups — organizations whose contributions and expenditures do not relate to an identifiable “candidate” —under the contribution limitations of section 441a, we must decline to extend that provision to cover such groups so as to avoid the constitutional problems which Buckley and its lower court predecessors were able to avoid by narrowly construing the term “political committee.”

FEC v. Machinists Non-Partisan Political League, 655 F.2d at 394 (footnote omitted).¹¹

The FEC has no jurisdiction to investigate the activities of FKC on behalf of a non-candidate. The order of the district court is reversed.

REVERSED.

1 . 2 U.S.C. §§ 431-441j. All references in this opinion to the Federal Election Campaign Act are to the provisions of the Act that were operative prior to the effective date of the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1979, Pub.L.No.96-187, 93 Stat. 1339 (Jan. 8, 1980).

2 . There is no allegation made that the MNPL donated more than $5,000 to any single draft-Kennedy organization.

3 . The FEC subpoena sought production of the following information:

1. All documents and materials (including but not limited to letters, memoranda, minutes, notes, and records of telephone conversations) relating to meetings, discussions, correspondence, or other communications between any official, employee, staff member, volunteer, organizer, or agent of FKC and any of the following persons or organizations or their officials, employees, staff members, volunteers, organizers, or agents:

a. Committee for Alternative to Democratic Presidential Candidate (Iowa)

b. New Hampshire Democrats for Change

c. Minnesotans for a Democratic Alternative

d. Illinois Citizens for Kennedy

e. D.C. Committee for a Democratic Alternative

f. Democrats for Change — 1980 (D.C.)

g. Citizens for Democratic Alternatives in 1980 (D.C.)

h. National Call for Kennedy

i. MNPL

j. International Association of Machinists

k. Mark A. Siegel

l. Marjorie Phyfe

m. William W. Winpisinger (I.A.M. President).

2. All documents and materials (including but not limited to letters, memoranda (internal or otherwise), minutes, notes, records of telephone conversations, newsletters, and publications) concerning the formation, organizational structure, and staff assignments of FKC or any of the organizations listed in request 1.

3. All documents and materials relating to any fundraising activities of FKC in the States of Iowa, New Hampshire, Illinois, California and Minnesota, and the District of Columbia, including but not limited to writings indicating who was involved in organizing or coordinating any such activities and who was contacted in the listed states.

4. All articles of incorporation, by-laws, rules, regulations, procedural manuals, policy statements, governing instruments, or other documentation of policies or procedures of FKC.

5. All telephone bills or other records of telephone calls made by FKC or by any of its officials, employees, staff members, volunteers, organizers, or agents.

6. All documents arid materials (including but not limited to airplane, bus, or train ticket receipts, automobile rental and gas receipts, bills for lodging and accommodations, travel authorization requests, and vouchers) relating to travel by officials, employees, staff members, volunteers, organizers, or agents of FKC.

7. A list of all officials, employees, staff members, volunteers, organizers, and agents of FKC. For each individual listed please indicate the title or position held and the dates of service.

8. The date of organization of FKC.

9. A list of the telephone numbers of FKC and of every official, employee, staff member, volunteer, organizer, and agent of FKC. For each number listed please indicate the listed or known name of the person to whom each number belongs.

4 . Compare 2 U.S.C. § 437d(a)(3) (FEC may issue administrative subpoenas in the course of its investigations) with 2 U.S.C. § 437d(b) (federal district court may enforce subpoena upon petition by FEC).

5 . This circuit has adopted as binding precedent the decisional law of the former fifth circuit that was published before October 1, 1981. See Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1207 (11th Cir. 1981).

6 . We do not deem it of any significance that Sweezy concerned the use of state legislative summonses. Like a summons, the subpoena is a form of compulsory process. Additionally, there is no logical reason to accord greater judicial deference to an administrative agency’s subpoena than to a subpoena issued in the course of a state legislative investigation.

7 . In a supplemental brief submitted to this court, the FEC argues that the rule of NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958), which requires strict judicial scrutiny of official efforts to obtain disclosure of individuals associated with a political organization, does not apply unless the target organization makes a factual showing that its membership is likely to be chilled in the exercise of associational rights as a result of the compelled disclosure. To support that proposition, the FEC cites Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 69-70, 96 S.Ct. 612, 658-659, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976). The FEC contends that FKC has made no factual showing of probable chilling effects, and therefore cannot invoke the strict judicial scrutiny required by NAACP v. Alabama.

We believe that the FEC has misapplied the cited portion of Buckley to this case. In that portion of the opinion, the Supreme Court addressed the contention by minor parties explicitly covered by the Act that extension of the disclosure provisions of the Act to them was unconstitutional under NAACP v. Alabama. The Court dismissed that contention holding that forced disclosure of membership information from organizations covered by the Act is unconstitutional under NAACP v. Alabama only when the target organization makes an initial factual showing of likely chilling effects. So stated, this holding in Buckley is inapplicable to the instant case. The objection lodged against the subpoena is not that FKC members will suffer chilling effects as a result of the required disclosure. Rather, FKC contends that as a matter of statutory construction, draft committees such as itself are not covered by the Act. Our initial holding in this case is that courts should not summarily enforce an administrative subpoena when there is a question regarding the statutory jurisdiction of the agency to investigate the organization and when resolution of that question will require the courts to construe the relevant statute in light of first amendment issues that would be raised by extending the statute to cover that organization. See Federal Election Comm’n v. Lance, 617 F.2d 365, 374 (5th Cir. 1980), supplemental opinion, 635 F.2d 1132 (5th Cir.) (en banc), appeal dismissed and cert. denied, 453 U.S. 917, 101 S.Ct. 3151, 69 L.Ed.2d 999 (1981); Federal Election Comm’n v. Machinists Non-Partisan Political League, 655 F.2d 380, 389 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 897, 102 S.Ct. 397, 70 L.Ed.2d 213 (1981). But cf. SEC v. Wall Street Transcript Corp., 422 F.2d 1371, 1375, 1380-81 (2d Cir.) (question whether a publication is a “bona fide newspaper” exempt from the disclosure requirements of the Investment Advisors Act of 1940 is a question in the first instance for the agency), cert. denied, 398 U.S. 958, 90 S.Ct. 2170, 26 L.Ed.2d 542 (1970).

If, hypothetically, draft committees such as FKC were explicitly included within the coverage of the Act, then FKC and groups like it would have to demonstrate likely chilling effects in order to invoke the protection of NAACP v. Alabama. See Marshall v. Stevens People & Friends for Freedom, 669 F.2d 171 (4th Cir. 1981), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 102 S.Ct. 1432, 71 L.Ed.2d 651 (1982).

8 . In its brief, the FEC argued that a determination of the Act’s coverage involves questions of fact and law. We do not dispute this assertion as a general proposition. At oral argument, however, the FEC conceded the relevant factual basis for a decision as to the FEC’s jurisdiction. See also Federal Election Comm’n v. Machinists Non-Partisan Political League, 655 F.2d 380, 390 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 897, 102 S.Ct. 397, 70 S.Ct. 213 (1981):

The Commission has already determined that Senator Kennedy was not a candidate for President as of August 17, 1979, but it nevertheless asserts that “draft-Kennedy” activities both before and after that date are controlled by FECA’s reporting and contribution provisions. FEC Advisory Opinion 1979-40 (Aug. 17, 1979). See also FEC Advisory Opinion 1979-49 (Oct. 5, 1979). No matter what facts it finds through this investigation, the requisite jurisdiction for the investigation itself must stand or fall on the purely legal claim that “draft” groups are “political committees” under FECA.

9 . Additionally, subjects of FEC investigations generally are not as likely to challenge subpoenas issued for the limited purpose of finding ■ facts to determine whether the FEC has jurisdiction to continue its investigation. As a practical matter, information of that type will have to be released by the subject of the inquiry at some point in the judicial process to justify its claim of FEC overreaching. Conversely, when no factual matter may be gleaned to shed further light upon the question of the FEC’s jurisdiction, the subjects of the inquiry are far more likely to remain resolute and risk contempt sanctions rather than release the requested information. Because of the high probability of such protracted proceedings when purely legal issues are raised, the efficiency considerations of Morton Salt and Hannah are better served by thorough judicial scrutiny of the subpoena at the outset of the enforcement process.

10 . In addition, the Supreme Court narrowly construed the term “contribution” for purposes of the disclosure requirements of 2 U.S.C. § 434:

[W]hen the maker of the expenditure is not within these categories — when it is an individual other than a candidate or a group other than a “political committee” — the relation of the information sought to the purposes of the Act may be too remote. To insure that the reach of § 434(e) is not imper-missibly broad, we construe “expenditure” for purposes of that section in the same way we construed the terms of § 608(e) — to reach only funds used for communications that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate. This reading is directed precisely to that spending that is unambiguously related to the campaign of a particular federal candidate.

Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 79-80, 96 S.Ct. 612, 663, 49 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976) (footnotes omitted).

11 . We note that Congress has amended the Act to cover for some purposes draft groups such as FKC, but that the effective date of the amendment was after the period of FKC’s activities. Compare 2 U.S.C. § 434(a)(1) (1978) with 2 U.S.C. § 434(a)(1) (1981) (Congress deleted requirement that political committee support a candidate before disclosure obligations of Act attached). See H.R.Rep.No.96-422, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 15, reprinted in 1979 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 2860, 2874.