No Labels is conducting its Unity ticket project under the safe harbor of the Unity08 ruling

In a 2010 decision, Unity08 v. FEC, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that a group focused only on obtaining ballot access for a presidential ticket is not required to register as a “political committee” under the Federal Election Campaign Act, because it is not supporting any “clearly identified candidate.”

No Labels is conducting its Unity ticket project under the safe harbor of the Unity08 ruling.

A political party committee is an organization like the Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee that: fields candidates up and down the ballot; engages in election activity year after year; and spends resources during the general election.

No Labels doesn’t participate in any of these activities. We are a longstanding 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, founded in 2009, that has and will always spend the majority of its time and resources on public policy efforts rather than elections.

No Labels is doing ballot access work for only one office and for election. If No Labels does end up offering its ballot line to an independent Unity ticket, it will not help fund or run that campaign. The law and the courts are clear that an entity like No Labels, focused only on securing ballot access and not advocating for any clearly identified candidate, is not a national political party committee.