Crossroads GPS to defend nonprofit status in court

The conservative Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (GPS) will argue it is not a political committee in a lawsuit brought by campaign finance watchdogs against the Karl Rove-linked group.

A federal appeals court Friday granted the group the right to defend itself against claims that it violated campaign finance laws.

{mosads}The Federal Election Commission (FEC) agrees with Crossroads GPS that it is a nonprofit, not a political committee, but watchdogs are challenging the ruling.

Public Citizen filed a complaint against GPS’s political spending activity in October 2010. After the FEC dismissed the case, Public Citizen challenged the decision in federal court.

At issue is the political spending activity of GPS, which works in conjunction with the super-PAC American Crossroads. The organization would be required to disclose information about its donors and expenditures if it were deemed a political committee.

The appeals court said GPS should be allowed to defend itself against these charges in a case that now heads back to the lower court, which originally declined the group’s request.

The lower court argued that GPS did not need to defend itself, because its interests are aligned with the FEC, which is arguing the case.

But the appeals court determined GPS should be added to the case as a co-defendant.

In its decision, the appeals court referred to the FEC as a “doubtful friend” of Crossroads GPS, because of the unlikely alignment between the two when in other cases they have been opposed to each other.

“Crossroads should not need to rely on a doubtful friend to represent its interests, when it can represent itself,” the judge wrote. “Crossroads easily met the minimal burden of showing inadequacy of representation and should be allowed to intervene as of right.”