The "Disastrous," and "Devastating" SCOTUS Decision

The "Disastrous," and "Devastating" SCOTUS Decision

 

"I can't think of anything more devastating to the public interest." President Obama 
referring to the Jan 21 Supreme Court decision that will replace government of, by and for the people to one ruled be a corporate plutocracy.

The Court’s Blow to Democracy  NY Times Published: January 21, 2010
With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century. Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court’s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/opinion/22fri1.html

Citizens ruling: an intellectually dishonest power grab  Washington Post  

In opening the floodgates for corporate money in election campaigns, the Supreme Court did not simply engage in a brazen power grab. It did so in an opinion stunning in its intellectual dishonesty.

Corporate Personhood Should Be Banned, Once and For All  By Ralph Nader
This corporatist, anti-voter decision is so extreme that it should galvanize a grassroots effort to enact a Constitutional Amendment to once and for all end corporate personhood and curtail the corrosive impact of big money on politics.    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24478.htm

Grayson: Court's Campaign Finance Decision "Worst Since Dred Scott"     In citizens United v. FEC, decided Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled "that only huge corporations have any constitutional rights," Grayson said. "They have the right to bribe, the right to buy elections, the right to reward their elected toadies, and the right to punish the elected representatives who take a stab at doing what's right."http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/grayson-courts-campaign-finance-decision-worst-dredd-scott

Bob Kerrey: the Supreme Court Election Funding Decision Is Wrong      http://www.care2.com/causes/politics/blog/bob-kerrey-on-the-supreme-court-election-funding-decision/

From MovetoAmend.org

From the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling:

Majority Opinion (Justice Kennedy, joined by Thomas, Roberts, Scalia and Alito)
http://bit.ly/5VdnbB

Dissenting Opinion (Justice Stevens, joined by Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Breyer)
http://bit.ly/5MEPOJ

Other Justices' Dissents or Concurrences
http://bit.ly/6zasOH

Justice Stevens, in dissent, was compelled to state the obvious:

. . . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their “personhood” often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.

More tomorrow on what we can do. We cannot let this stand!