Federal Election Commission lawyers and counsel for Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) are tangling over whether 15 campaign finance regulations recently invalidated by a federal judge can and should be enforced pending an appeal of the court’s decision.

[IMGCAP(1)] In a motion filed Friday, the FEC asked the court to “make clear that … the regulations found defective remain in effect” until the Court of Appeals renders a final decision on the case. The FEC also asked that it not be required to initiate new proceedings to rewrite the rules implementing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act — as Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s Sept. 18 decision instructed the agency to do — until the appeals court weighs in on the matter.

Lawyers for Shays and Meehan plan to fight the motion for a stay pending appeal and have said they will file a response to the FEC’s motion by 5 p.m. today.

Platform Building. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies will host a “nail driving” ceremony Wednesday for the 2005 event.

The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. on the Capitol’s West Front.

Members of the JCCIC, including the panel’s chairman, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), will hammer nails into the inaugural platform being constructed for the Jan. 20, 2005, ceremony.

— Amy Keller and Jennifer Yachnin