Activists File Lawsuit to Force Changes to Presidential Debates
US President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney shake hands at the end of the third and final presidential debate October 22, 2012 at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.
Photographer: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty ImagesA consortium seeking to expand the 2016 general-election presidential debates to independent and third-party candidates is suing the Federal Election Commission to try to force changes to a system they say is designed to keep power in the hands of Democrats and Republicans.
Level the Playing Field and the Green and Libertarian parties filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, organizers said. The lawsuit seeks to direct the FEC to find that the Commission on Presidential Debates' rules governing who can participate in general-election debates are too restrictive and violate the law, and to open a new rule-making process that allows broader, though not unrestricted, participation. The plaintiffs alternately want special permission from the court to sue the debate commission directly.