By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling yesterday that struck down major portions of campaign finance law and will now allow corporations, who largely favor fiscally conservative candidates, to contribute to election-related activity without having to set up political action committees.
Justices handed down the long-awaited 5-4 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC in which they overturned a long-standing rule prohibiting corporations from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. Under the ruling, corporations and unions will still be prohibited from giving direct contributions to candidates.
Free speech advocates have long believed that many of the limitations imposed by the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law amounted to unconstitutional censorship of free speech.
“The censorship we now confront is vast in its reach,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion. He was joined by his four more conservative colleagues Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
Justice Paul Stevens, who wrote the dissenting opinion, said the court made an error in treating corporate free speech the same as individual free speech and that allowing unlimited corporate spending will increase the likelihood of corruption in the political system.
“The court’s ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions around the nation,” Justice Stevens wrote. He was joined by the liberal members of the court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.
The case began with a 90 minute film critical of then-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton by a group known as Citizens United. The filmmaker wanted to run ads for the movie on local cable systems during the 2008 Democratic primary campaign but the courts prevented it, saying the movie resembled a campaign ad and should be regulated under campaign finance laws.
Lawyers used the case to challenge campaign finance laws that have long treated the free speech rights of corporations differently from individuals.
According to Human Events.com, Citizen United President David Bossie called the ruling “a victory for Citizens United, but even more so for the First Amendment rights of all Americans. The fault line on this issue does not split liberals and conservatives or Republicans and Democrats. Instead, it pits entrenched establishment politicians against the very people whom they are elected to serve.”
The ruling rattled politicians on Capitol Hill because the ruling is bound to affect the 2010 elections. Corporations, who largely support the fiscally conservative platform of the Republican Party will now have more financial freedom to run ads denouncing Democratic efforts to reform healthcare, curb climate change and regulate Wall Street.
According to The American Thinker, “The political dialogue in America will become more varied and intense, with for-profit and nonprofit corporations able to spend money in order to influence politics. The changes should be far-reaching. This diminishes the power of the left, overall, as corporations now have the ability to speak as loud or louder than unions, who have been unfettered.”
This explains why liberal lawmakers are balking at the ruling and threatening to enact legislation to restore some of the restrictions that were overturned yesterday.
“The Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics,” President Obama said in a statement released by the White House. “It is 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. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington–while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called the decision “un-American.”
“The Supreme Court has just predetermined the winners of next year’s elections,” he said. “It won’t be Republicans, it won’t be Democrats, it will be corporate America.”
Schumer promises to “not let the decision go unchallenged” and promised to hold hearings on the ruling in the coming days with the goal of getting something passed into law in time for the 2010 elections.
However, the recent loss of their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate is likely to make this goal difficult to achieve.
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