Will Supreme Court allow unlimited corporate contributions to election campaigns?
Published: July 5, 2009
Updated 4 months ago
The most troubling part of the court’s action is the brave new world of politics it could usher in. Auto companies that receive multibillion-dollar bailouts could spend vast sums to re-elect the same officials who hand them the money. If Exxon Mobil or Wal-Mart wants something from a member of Congress, it could threaten to spend as much as it takes to defeat him or her in the next election.
– From an editorial in the New York Times, July 4, 2009
If this editorial in the Times has it right, American democracy could be in for a rough ride in the coming years.
A largely-overlooked order from the United States Supreme Court last week suggests the nation’s highest court wants to revisit long-standing restrictions on campaign contributions from corporations.
On the last day of its current session, the Supreme Court surprised observers by declining to return a ruling in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, instead asking lawyers on both sides of the case to return in September for an unusual pre-session hearing on the validity of various electoral laws pertaining to the case.
Citizens United vs. FEC revolves around a political film the conservative activist group Citizens United made about Hillary Clinton in 2008, while the then-senator from New York was running for president. The FEC had charged Citizens United with breaking campaign finance laws by distributing the film during a certain period before the primary elections.
But instead of ruling on the case and the relevant law (the McCain-Feingold law, which set some restrictions on corporate political spending), the court instead asked the lawyers in the case to present briefs on a relevant case from 20 years ago: Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce.
This is important because that was the Supreme Court case which ruled that restrictions on campaign contributions by corporations, unions and other organizations were legal despite their infringement on First Amendment rights.
Simply put, if the Supreme Court decides to overturn Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, it will mean that any restrictions on campaign spending by corporations will be invalid because they violate those corporations’ right to freedom of speech.
“The court, at the very least, is considering reversing more than 100 years of campaign finance precedent prohibiting corporate spending,” Paul Ryan, associate legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, told The Hill. “It would be a pretty large step, and remarkable step, for the court to overturn a century of public policy.”
Judicial observers fear overturning the 1989 ruling would mark the beginning of a wild, unbridled era where elections are won by the highest bidder.
“Banks like Citigroup, investment firms like Merrill Lynch, insurance companies like AIG and corporations like General Motors and Chrysler would be free to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of their corporation’s wealth” on elections, Fred Wertheimer, president of advocacy group Democracy 21, told the Washington Post.
According to a report at the First Amendment Center, restrictions on corporate spending go back to the Tillman Act of 1907, with various additional laws being put into place over the past century. The entire tradition of restricting political spending could be out the window with a Supreme Court reversal on corporations’ First Amendment rights.
In its editorial, the New York Times writes that even the “feverish” pace with which the Supreme Court wants to address the issue — it wants to rule on the issue in September, when the court hasn’t even reconvened for its new session — is “disturbing.”
The Times writes:
The most troubling part of the court’s action is the brave new world of politics it could usher in. Auto companies that receive multibillion-dollar bailouts could spend vast sums to re-elect the same officials who hand them the money. If Exxon Mobil or Wal-Mart wants something from a member of Congress, it could threaten to spend as much as it takes to defeat him or her in the next election.
It is a nightmare vision, but based on how the justices have come down in past cases, there may well be five votes for it to prevail.
Background information on Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission can be found here.
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They already buy our elected officials. The SC thinks they’re over-regulated and under-represented? Insanity. All aboard for the corporate plutocracy. Government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich shall not perish from this earth. Amen. The rest of you get familiar with the term “cannon fodder”.
The people handed the Republican Party its head in the last two elections for Congress (’06) and Congress as well as the White House (’08), so now the Republican SCOTUS is going to overturn a hundred years of election law to hand the next elections back to the Republicans? Remember SCOTUS, for every action there is a reaction. Are you playing with the concept that history will villify you anyway (Bush v Gore and Kelo v City of New London), so you might as well go ahead and confirm your treasonous souls? Tread lightly. Villification ain’t necessarily the worst. Impeachment IS possible, just “not likely” at the moment. Wanna fight THAT battle and lose?
Again.. If it were only that simple.
In the 08 cycle, what popular, Democrat Presidential candidate, at a Demcorat Presidential Forum no less, was quoted shouting that “A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans.” as a defense of their raking in gobs of lobby payola.
The money is corrupting our very system of Government. It’s not a simple matter of electing Republicans or Democrats, it’s about having the system itself wrenched from our hands and handed to monied interests.
It really doesn’t matter what the People voted at this point. The Cons routinely and consisting rejected Clinton’s judicial nominees during his term, leaving large holes on bench. Then, with Bush, he turned over the vetting process to Rove and Gonzales to fill it up to the brim with ideologues and faithful followers. The ‘people’ really had no say in it. It going to be 30 years before we can clear the bench of justices like Roberts, Scalito and Thomas and their wannabes. The coup of this country hasn’t been in the Executive-Congressional branch…it’s been through the Judicial Branch and the lifetime appointments that come with it!
Unlimited corporate contributions to Pols…
That says it all ~
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
FASCISM IS SLAVERY !
Of course they will…why do you think they wear dresses.
I see no evidence our government isn’t bought and paid for already.
Frankly, the contributions which worry me the most are of the in-kind variety from the MSM and the parties themselves, against third parties or lesser known, major party candidates.
I’m all for publically funded elections. It’s not a panacea and I know that, but something has to be done to decouple the money and publicity machine from national politics. These people no longer work for us and they haven’t for some time.
We’ve effectively been suffering the rule of hundreds of power mad monarchs for years now..
Any REAL reform will, of course, require kicking 99% of our current congress to the curb, regardless of what the SC rules. The reason is otherwise they’ll just legislate around it and continue on as they have.
We won’t kick them to the curb because the supercharged partisans still believe in the republicrat, uber-party system.
Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a modern version of ABSCAM! How much worse the corruption would have to be today! Perhaps something like that would shock the masses and end this two card monte system of government!
We elect 536 people and empower them to make nearly any change they see fit, at any time. Result: Decades of gridlock on the issues that matter.. But wild fast action when Wall Street $$$ are at stake!
Something has got to give, or I fear we won’t be a republic in a few decades.
PS: Gore Vidal made an incredibly astute observation about our current state, he called for “Democracy promotion” at home.
While we are not a pure democracy he reasoned, still with our democratic form of government, one SHOULD expect the majority to get what they want most of the time.
But THAT IS NOT THE CASE here in the US. The recent slap in the face was TARP, but there have been many others.. Term limits used to poll in the 80 percent range, etc.. No action what-so-ever.
Effectively, we have no representation. They simply don’t work for us anymore.
This country was founded as a REPUBLIC not a democracy. There is a difference
How are ‘plain reading’ ‘textualists’ ‘conservative’ judges going to show that a corporation is a person?
I guess they want it clearly shot down, so they can then say UNIONs also should not be allowed to give money.
Republicans have been trying every way they can for years to knock out ways for Dems to raise money. It apparently isn’t enough for them to have the Haves and Have-Mores on their side.
Whatever contorted logic they adduce to make that case, the Congress could in principle write new laws that get there by another route, it seems to me.
I think the case should be made that bribery, as the highest political crime named in the Constitution, is at the heart of the issue, because even as it stand now, no senator can go one day without begging $20,000 from somebody, and the threat of withholding those contributions are a completely overwhelming existential force in the life of an elected official, however pure their motives.
The laws as they now stand make bribery a requirement. The idea that they could serve a term with no quid pro quo is farcical.
Add to that the personhood of corporations is all based on an ultra vires utterance in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, included in the decision by the clerk (accident?) and denounced by the Chief Justice later.
If enough legislators raised these issues to a high level of newsworthiness — enough, I say, large enough numbers of legislators — it could be done.
But of course, the incumbents are the beneficiaries, so how can we make it worth their while? That’s the question.
They are the pack of hounds, we are the hunters. How do we get them to hunt?
Democrats are far less likely to benefit than Republicans though, as a poster above has mentioned. We need to help them see that.
Welcome to the Oligarchy of the United states. Now corporations or group of corporations have a bought and paid for legislature, and a defacto control of the White House. If the SCOTUS is that naive to believe that this wont corrupt politicians on ALL levels of the Federal State and Local govt., then they are fools. We’ll have counties run by boss hog types, state legislatures run by the corporations themselves for their benefits and Federal employees doing everything they can to ingratiate themselves to the corporations in order to get money from them. It will be a bribe on all levels of govt.
We are a third world Oligarchy.
Can we impeach Scalia, Thomas, and Roberts? This is OUTRAGEOUS. They will destroy this country and allow only wealthy multi-national corporations to buy any election they wish. THIS FASCIST COURT MUST BE STOPPED. They MUST NOT be allowed to dictate policy to us. IMPEACH THE COURT!
As I wrote in a previous post regarding Goldman Sachs but very pertinent to this article as well :
Quote Frank Zappa:
It’s fairly obvious, since Richard Nixon, that there is no such thing as a fair deal for any voter in the United States — You’re just not gonna get it. It’s a joke — the people that you vote for, they’re the next best thing to criminals. But of course they have money for advertising campaigns that make them look a little bit better than they actually are.
Whether it’s the SEC, FCC, DEP,(choose your favorite acronym), etc. The regulatory institutions meant to protect us, no longer serve us. Congress, the Senate and the parties themselves answer to the same master. Government of the people by the people for the people, has been replaced by Government of the corporation by the corporation for the corporation. One of the biggest disasters that befell us occurred in “1886 when the Supreme Court ruled on a case called Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. The results of which corporations acquired legal personhood” and this is why we no longer have control of our government and Monsanto, Exxonmobil, et al, do.. We need to repeal the results of that ruling if we are ever to have a chance of having some sort of democracy again.
The link below is a good start:
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/edwards_morgan_corporate.html
Here are some links with info on the 28th. Amendment:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/watch-separation-of-corporation-and-state-the-birth-of-the-28th-amendment-movement/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/fishermaam-proposes-28th_n_142735.html
“The history as how we got into this mess is real easy to understand.
It all started with a small tax dispute case, Santa Clara County V Southern Pacific Railroad. and a little bit of court shenanigan by a court clerk named Bancroft Davis
Who had his own agenda, because he had served as president to the board of directors for The Newburg & New York Railroad Co. What in blazes he was doing there as a court clerk to begin with is unknown.
Anyway, in the preamble to the case, Chief Justice Morrison Waite said “We can all agree that equal protection under the law applies to these corporations as well.” After the case was decided, the foot notes were put together by none other than a railroad man who took it upon himself to include the equal protection under the law quote from the preamble as part of the summary judgment handed down. Its all the more amazing considering that the case wasn’t about equal protection at all. In fact the court skirted the issue altogether.
With that small act Mr. Davis, opened a gargantuan can of worms that spawns the corruption of government officials and all forms of sordid affairs too numerous to mention.
The immutable facts are.…corporations exist and do business by the good will of the state. A corporation cannot exist without the consent and authority of the state. They can’t hold elective office, they can’t be sworn as citizens, nor can they be arrested. And most importantly they don’t enjoy the right to vote.
If they can’t be sworn in, hold office, be arrested and can’t vote, tell us SCOTUS, how did they get the right to petition the government to redress a grievance?”
We don’t have to guess very far to know how much the FEDERAL RESERVE paid this time, in order to try to get this law through!
The Federal Reserve Banking Complex already runs all our government, here they are just demonstrating the power further!!!!
The simplest thing for us to do in order to root out this corruption from hell, is to leave it up to the STATES to decide and all of them - all of our armed states assert the 10th AMENDMENT and call for the Supreme Court’s Ouster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s way past time, and SOUND MONEY is the only way, the ONLY way we can take the country back once & for all with the GAUNTLET of fire!!!!!
http://www.mises.org
There is absolutely NO CLAUSE in the constitution which allows for unlimited corporate spending. CORPORATIONS are not PEOPLE and there is so many Juries in this country attacking corporations now, and Judge frauds, that they shouldn’t even DARE to make any further moves to assume they are people!!!!
Let the states decide this issue, NO MORE should we allow the Federal bench to decide it. They’ve proven themselves incapable of any decision…
We don’t have to guess very far to know how much the FEDERAL RESERVE paid this time, in order to try to get this law through!
The Federal Reserve Banking Complex already runs all our government, here they are just demonstrating the power further!!!!
The simplest thing for us to do in order to root out this corruption from hell, is to leave it up to the STATES to decide and all of them - all of our armed states assert the 10th AMENDMENT and call for the Supreme Court’s Ouster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s way past time, and SOUND MONEY is the only way, the ONLY way we can take the country back once & for all with the GAUNTLET of fire!!!!!
mises. org
There is absolutely NO CLAUSE in the constitution which allows for unlimited corporate spending. CORPORATIONS are not PEOPLE and there is so many Juries in this country attacking corporations now, and Judge frauds, that they shouldn’t even DARE to make any further moves to assume they are people!!!!
Let the states decide this issue, NO MORE should we allow the Federal bench to decide it. They’ve proven themselves incapable of any decision…
I have no doubt that this case will be decided in favor of corporate interests, since the United States is no longer a democratic republic but a fascist state run by and for the interests of huge corporations and their owners. Anyone who is hoping for change from Obama and the Democratic party should wake up and smell the coffee. There is no real substantive difference between the parties and this is because there is in fact only one party–the Money Party. Bush favored defense and oil contractors–Obama, like Clinton, is the bought and paid for toady of the banking industry. I would say it’s time for Americans to get together and work to change the system, but that has been co-opted by the powers that be also. The only “change” we are gonna get is the penny some plutocrat drops in your cup as he walks by with his security detail in the way to his gated community.
CORPORATIONS are not legally people. We have the means and the resources to fight this & win the war.
All you need is people to jump in the game who understand this simple principal, and battle the Supreme Court to finish this issue once & for all as the 2nd amendment guarantees us with prejudice.
“CORPORATIONS” have been proven in the Common Courts to not be people, in the “FEDERAL” courts the same rules would apply. Get the men & women who care about this issue to jump in the fight.
attacking symptoms just said the very thing that I was about to say. There is no real good reason that corporations should be considered to be people, and the legal basis is even flimsier than any other recent “decision” of the SCOTUS. That means that yes, indeed, they can have their contributions regulated. All it takes is a concerted effort to see to it that the pseudopersonhood status they presently enjoy is removed.
And then to keep them that way because in no place through out history has anyone considered a “CORPORATION” to be a person.
That’s like saying Hitler was a boyscout or Messiah.
“The history as how we got into this mess is real easy to understand.
It all started with a small tax dispute case, Santa Clara County V Southern Pacific Railroad. and a little bit of court shenanigan by a court clerk named Bancroft Davis
Who had his own agenda, because he had served as president to the board of directors for The Newburg & New York Railroad Co. What in blazes he was doing there as a court clerk to begin with is unknown.
Anyway, in the preamble to the case, Chief Justice Morrison Waite said “We can all agree that equal protection under the law applies to these corporations as well.” After the case was decided, the foot notes were put together by none other than a railroad man who took it upon himself to include the equal protection under the law quote from the preamble as part of the summary judgment handed down. Its all the more amazing considering that the case wasn’t about equal protection at all. In fact the court skirted the issue altogether.
With that small act Mr. Davis, opened a gargantuan can of worms that spawns the corruption of government officials and all forms of sordid affairs too numerous to mention.
The immutable facts are…corporations exist and do business by the good will of the state. A corporation cannot exist without the consent and authority of the state. They can’t hold elective office, they can’t be sworn as citizens, nor can they be arrested. And most importantly they don’t enjoy the right to vote.
If they can’t be sworn in, hold office, be arrested and can’t vote, tell us SCOTUS, how did they get the right to petition the government to redress a grievance?”
If we’re going to go back and legislate from the bench, then we may as well go back and remove the absurd notion that a corporation is a “person.”
A corporation doesn’t need air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink in order to exist. People do!
- Tom
This will be the last shovelful of dirt thrown on the grave of the Great American Experiment. It is too bad that all who will oppose this will be accused of treason against the United States. Corporations, and the people who work for them, are ugly, sick, and twisted things. Really, this will be the end. Is there any doubt on how SCOTUS will rule?
God damn the corporate man. We are corrupt enough as it is. This will turn us into no more than a banana reublic.
I had the misfortune of having been linked to the NYT story this afternoon.
Of course, central to reclaiming power for the citizenry in a ‘democracy’ is the concept of taxpayer funded elections.
This development, should SCOTUS rule in it’s usual 5-4 fashion (or 5-3, cause they aren’t waiting for Sotmayer, it appears), is pretty much a final nail in the coffin of democracy and therefore an *enormously* important issue which is being widely under-reported and not at all accidentally, I’d submit.
I can’t imagine a more important issue for the electorate to informed of, so I suggest everyone pass this around and emphasis the potential implications, for what it’s worth.
BTW: The cost of said publicly funded elections is not an issue.
Think about it: A $10.00 tax each year from every taxpayer equals $3 billion+ in four years.
That should cover the cost of a federal election every four years.
Correct if I’m wrong, but there two areas that Roberts and Alito were grilled on during their hearings: 1) Stare Decisis and 2) Unitary Executive Theory. Apparently, those things only apply to the Republican administrations though, and Democratic administrations are in violation.
Those black-robed baboons take corporate bananas while they fling shit at the American people. I have respect for only 2 political figures in this country. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. The rest can drop dead and go straight to hell!
Roberts and Alito have never met a corporation they didn’t like (or an individual they did). Scalia and Thomas can be reliably expected to vote similarly, and Kennedy has been showing an ever greater willingness to be swayed by Roberts, as the NYT has already pointed out. This does not bode well for future elections. They will be held, of course, but if unlimited corporate money can flow to the candidate that will do its bidding, then it will be like a college student on a street corner with a sign trying to compete with the Fox network. The will of the people will become something to be shaped, like a clay form, for a price. Elections will become a foregone conclusion. At some point, popular discontent will rise, technology will put it down, as with Iran today, but also as with Iran today, the ruling powers will merely putting a tighter lid on the problem, only to have it explode all the more violently when it cannot be contained any more.
well actually this issue has been ajudicated before, money and its expenditure in the politcal process is considered free speach, the more money you have the more free speach you can afford, the court sees no distinction bewteen the haves over powering the have nots with money?
it is the same concept as with the application of justice…the more money you have, the more justice you can buy.
like it or not thats how the courts operate, there is no justice to be had when it comes to the SCOTUS in the end, other wise so much of the wrongs we observe would never be tolerated to begin with?
especially some of the goings on we have witnessed under Bush the 2nd.
The simplest solution to this “problem” is for Congress to pass a law declaring that corporations are not “persons” and therefore are not entitled to Constitutional protections. It will never happen, but it should.
It’s become obvious in past 10 years that the only possibility for meaningful change must come through revolution. This system is now beyond redemption and replete with scumbag criminals.
consumetheconsumer is right
“The simplest solution to this “problem” is for Congress to pass a law declaring that corporations are not “persons” and therefore are not entitled to Constitutional protections. It will never happen, but it should.”
The wishes of we the people are evermore suppressed. The only way we can even hope to turn this around is to get some of them jailed for violations of Federal Laws. The Virginia grand jury effort against the CIA for destroying torture tapes is hopeful.
SIGN THE PETITION
calling for a
congressional commission
and a
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http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Over 250,000 have signed
Join them and call yourself a Patriot
“Simply put, if the Supreme Court decides to overturn Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, it will mean that any restrictions on campaign spending by corporations will be invalid because they violate those corporations’ right to freedom of speech.”
first, money does not equal free speech. The idiot that allowed that bastardization of reason to stick should be shot; posthumously if needed.
Secondly, if “campaigning contribution laws” apply to people, meaning individuals have limits that aren’t considered unconstitutional, then the same thing applies to corporations. Any given corporation is considered “a person” (despite that being completely fucktarded) which means that ONE person can contribute up to the “personal limit”.. that’s fine with me, any given corporation can donate up to $2,500 and that’s IT. Problem solved.
If they say “elections are now open for bidding”, it will be time to leave this sham of a Democratic nation.
They already run the government and they’ll prop up whatever puppet they want in the White House. Most of us learned that in Bush/Cheney 101 and 102.
“The history as how we got into this mess is real easy to understand.
It all started with a small tax dispute case, Santa Clara County V Southern Pacific Railroad. and a little bit of court shenanigan by a court clerk named Bancroft Davis
Who had his own agenda, because he had served as president to the board of directors for The Newburg & New York Railroad Co. What in blazes he was doing there as a court clerk to begin with is unknown.
Anyway, in the preamble to the case, Chief Justice Morrison Waite said “We can all agree that equal protection under the law applies to these corporations as well.” After the case was decided, the foot notes were put together by none other than a railroad man who took it upon himself to include the equal protection under the law quote from the preamble as part of the summary judgment handed down. Its all the more amazing considering that the case wasn’t about equal protection at all. In fact the court skirted the issue altogether.
With that small act Mr. Davis, opened a gargantuan can of worms that spawns the corruption of government officials and all forms of sordid affairs too numerous to mention.
The immutable facts are …corporations exist and do business by the good will of the state. A corporation cannot exist without the consent and authority of the state. They can’t hold elective office, they can’t be sworn as citizens, nor can they be arrested. And most importantly they don’t enjoy the right to vote.
If they can’t be sworn in, hold office, be arrested and can’t vote, tell us SCOTUS, how did they get the right to petition the government to redress a grievance?”
The power given to corporations is the cause of today’s joblessness. A corporation does not support the general welfare of the people. In actuality, it supresses it. If anything, corporations should be stripped of many of their protections we citizens can’t even get or are denied. We need people power to return and honest management in our businesses and industries. Mangement doesn’t make a company work, its the workers who make it all happen.
We need to become informed (…it’s been CAPITALISM vs. DEMOCRACY since Reagan’s 80s), aggressive, active citizens, insisting that our representative represent, and holding them accountable.
For the past eight years, MSM have insured that our massive anti-war, anti-bush demonstrations received virtually no visibility. This needs fixing.
The only way to regain our Republic is to take it back. A lot more than blogging is required.
” If Exxon Mobil or Wal-Mart wants something from a member of Congress, it could threaten to spend as much as it takes to defeat him or her in the next election.” You need to change the word “spend” to “pay”. It would be more accurate. The elections are already cooked at will and the courts look the other way. The fix is in…big time. Your vote doesn’t count. Ask Bush. BTW, we live in a republic not a democracy. There is a huge difference…and the founding fathers knew it. We forgot.
EXXON MOBIL commercial:
Give us your pledge to vote for Senator X, and we’ll give you a coupon good for 5 gallons of premium unleaded!
“SCOTUS”, known now as “BRBOTUS”, “Black-Robed Baboons of the United States”. They take corporate bananas fling shit on behalf of them.