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Federal Election Commission | United States of America

Advisory opinions

Advisory opinions are official Commission responses to questions about how federal campaign finance law applies to specific, factual situations.

This archive contains advisory opinions from 1975 to the present. It also contains documents related to advisory opinions — such as requests, drafts and public comments — from 1990 to the present.

The advisory opinion process

Search advisory opinions

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Example: 2003-38
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Examples: charity, "spending prohibitions"

The advisory opinion search feature includes all FEC advisory opinions (AOs) to date. You can search all FEC AOs using keywords, AO numbers, names of requestors and more. For additional search filters, you can still search AOs using our legacy AO search.

Pending advisory opinion requests

Once the Office of the General Counsel has determined that an advisory opinion request meets all of the requirements to move forward for consideration by the Commission, the request is made public and is available for public comment for ten days.

Learn how to comment

Recent advisory opinions issued

The Commission issues an advisory opinion when four or more Commissioners vote to approve it. These votes almost always occur during an open meeting.

Explore all advisory opinions

AO 2024-12 McCutcheon

Whether for purposes of contribution limits the first round of a ranked choice voting election constitutes a general election, and each subsequent round, if any, is a distinct runoff election.

Final Opinion | PDF

This information is not intended to replace the law or to change its meaning, nor does this information create or confer any rights for or on any person or bind the Federal Election Commission or the public.

The reader is encouraged also to consult the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.), Commission regulations (Title 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations), Commission advisory opinions and applicable court decisions.