Washington ? The Federal Election Commission on Monday asked an appeals court to reconsider a decision ordering the FEC to write tougher rules to carry out a 2002 campaign finance law.

The commission could have taken the case to the Supreme Court, but instead decided to first ask the full federal appeals court in Washington to consider it. A smaller panel of appellate judges last month upheld U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s 2004 decision striking down several FEC rules interpreting the new law.

The law, approved by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2002 years after its sponsors began fighting for it, bans congressional and presidential candidates and national party committees from raising corporate and union money in any amount and unlimited donations from any source.

The law also bars the use of corporate and union money for election-time ads, among other new limits.

Kollar-Kotelly struck down more than a dozen commission regulations that she said opened loopholes that savvy political players could exploit. The law’s sponsors, including Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., had sued to try to force the FEC to write stronger regulations.