Archive for the ‘SCOTUS’ tag
Business Keeps A Voice
The editorial board at the New York Times is none too happy about the ruling in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission:
The majority is deeply wrong on the law. Most wrongheaded of all is its insistence that corporations are just like people and entitled to the same First Amendment rights. It is an odd claim since companies are creations of the state that exist to make money. They are given special privileges, including different tax rates, to do just that. It was a fundamental misreading of the Constitution to say that these artificial legal constructs have the same right to spend money on politics as ordinary Americans have to speak out in support of a candidate.
The majority also makes the nonsensical claim that, unlike campaign contributions, which are still prohibited, independent expenditures by corporations “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” If Wall Street bankers told members of Congress that they would spend millions of dollars to defeat anyone who opposed their bailout, and then did so, it would certainly look corrupt.
I like that line about Wall Street bankers. I also applies to Move On, and to SEIU.
The fact is that campaign contributions are open and available for all to see. If a company moves in with an onerous amount of cash, that actually has a negative effect. Instead of moving money through PACs, and hiding influence through individual donations, all the giving can be out front for anyone to see.
The final nail, though, is the Times’ supposition that money translates instantly into votes. Martha Coakley raised four dollars for every one garnered by Scott Brown, and outspent him by a factor of five.
