Supreme Court Hands Victory to Large Corporations
The following is my third column for the Daily Illini, which can be found at the following location:
http://www.dailyillini.com/blogs/different-perspectives/2010/01/26/supreme-court-hands-victory-to-large-corporations
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The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to strike down existing bans on campaign spending by corporations is a blow to our democracy. It will fundamentally reshape the political battlefield by allowing multinational companies that have a stake in American politics, to open their war chests and use the corrosive influence of money to sway the votes of elected officials.
The roots of the case stretch back to the tough Democratic Primary fight between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. Amid the swirl of campaign ads, the conservative advocacy group Citizens United released “Hillary: The Movie,” a slashing documentary that the Federal Election Commision classified as political advertisement. This meant it could not be shown on the airwaves because it was funded by money from large corporations and scheduled to be released in the final days of the primary.
Citizens United appealed the decision to the US District Court for DC, who agreed with the Federal Election Commission. Prospects for overturning the decision looked bleak, until the Supreme Court decided to pluck the case out of obscurity before they left for summer break last year.
Arguments began again in the fall, and this time the Courts sided with Citizens United. Rallying his minions under the banner of the First Amendment, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. managed to erode the wall separating corporate spending and electoral politics by overturning a century of established legal precedent, not to mention many ideas enshrined in the Constitution.
In crafting the framework for our system of laws, the founders assigned protections to a number of groups such as the people and militias, while warning of the dangers posed by the power of others such as religious establishments and corporations. The intent of the Founders was reaffirmed by Congress in 1907 as the influence of corporations rose to uncharted levels under the direction of Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan. To limit the rising influence of the monopolies and conglomerates, Congress banned corporations from donating to political campaigns.
A number of laws have fleshed out the scope of this ban since the turn of the 20th century, most notably the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 which put limits on campaign contributions and forced candidates to directly stand by ads funded by their campaign.
But all of these limits were overturned in one fell swoop. Perhaps the five justices who voted in favor of Citizens United – Alito, Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Kennedy – did not understand the political reality of corporate interest, but the ramifications are staggering. According to President Obama, the ruling was “a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”
I don’t think this is a progressive or conservative issue. The decision has not only received criticism from President Obama and his fellow Democrats, but harsh condemnation has been heaped on by Republicans as well.
Perhaps the loudest voice of dissent from the Right came from Senator John McCain, who lashed out against the decision on last week’s “Face the Nation.”
While McCain says that the era of campaign finance reform seems to be over, I would disagree with him. The case was decided by a single vote. And all we need to overturn it is one more vote.
