On September 1, President Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to force FEC action on a complaint the Bush campaign had filed last March against Democratic leaning independent political committees. Based on their announcement August 26, Trevor Potter, a campaign reform advocate and former FEC chairman, said he had anticipated the two would file a second suit as well seeking to force stricter regulation of all independent political committees, but they did not. The new suit asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for an injunction forcing the FEC to act within 30 days and for an expedited hearing. The FEC said it will oppose the request. The law allows parties that file FEC complaints and feel they are "aggrieved" if there is no action after 120 days to file a petition in federal court. In order to prevail the party must show that the FEC acted "contrary to law". The court will examine the credibility of the allegations in the complaint, the severity of the threat, resources available to the FEC and other factors, including whether Congress has provided guidance on the question. These types of suits are unusual and courts do no usually intervene. The complaint charges that the groups are violating the law by spending soft money to defeat President Bush. The legal issues are the same as those debated throughout the year in FEC rulemakings and Advisory Opinions. See www.nonprofitadvocacy.org for more information. On August 31 the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21 and the Center for Responsive Politics sent a letter to the FEC urging them to act on complaints the groups filed against The Media Fund, the Progress for America Voting Fund and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.