On October 6, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan set a hearing date in Level the Playing Field v Federal Election Commission, D.C. 1:15cv-1397. This is case filed on June 22, 2015 by Level the Playing Field, Peter Ackerman, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein. The lawsuit argues that the FEC is obliged to rule that the Commission on Presidential Debates is illegally ignoring the federal campaign finance laws. The CPD depends on large contributions from for-profit corporations, to pay for its debates. Yet federal campaign laws do not allow corporations to donate to federal candidates. The lawsuit argues that the CPD is in effect assisting both the Democratic and Republican nominees against all of their competitors.

The hearing will be January 5, 2017, at 10 a.m., courtroom 2, in the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. This will be the first hearing in this case.

This case should not be confused with Johnson v Commission on Presidential Debates, which already lost in U.S. District Court and is now in the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. circuit. Johnson v CPD argues that the CPD is in violation of federal anti-trust laws.