Some have argued that FEC regulations are regularly flouted through the use of loopholes, and that a significant amount of independent expenditure is, in reality, coordinated. A piece written by Alex Roarty and Shane Goldmacher in the National Journal, and republished in The Atlantic, outlined just how "brazen" current attempts at coordination can be. Focusing on Thom Tillis, a Republican US Senator from North Carolina, and his 2014 Senate campaign's efforts to influence his allied super PAC, it details the publication of a freely-available memo on Tillis's website, which outlined his campaign's detailed advertising strategy. Purportedly 'intended' for donors, "It is just as easily read as an explicit wish list aimed at the inboxes of outside allies with whom he cannot otherwise legally communicate about strategy." Paul S. Ryan from the Campaign Legal Center noted he had "never seen anything like it," but "hastened to add he also saw nothing illegal in the Tillis missive." As Roarty and Goldmacher elaborate, "The restrictions that bar coordination between candidates and their allies only apply to explicit communication between the two sides—a loophole that has been exploited by speaking in public ever since the proliferation of outside organizations following the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling."