The Federal Election Commission has settled a dispute with a political action committee that will allow it to both contribute to federal candidates like a traditional PAC and to take unlimited contributions from corporate, labor or individuals for use in making independent expenditures. 

The consent degree ends a court case, Carey v. FEC, filed after the FEC blocked a 2010 plan by the National Defense PAC to set up a segregated bank account for making independent expendistures. National Defense PAC made modest contributions--just $1,490--to federal candidates that cycle, and had no donors who contributed more than $200. The ...