Another Blow to Democracy by the Supreme Court Five

Portrait of Aggressive Judicial Activism                                                                                    B Upton

On Monday, the five right-wingers on the Supreme Court (l to r- Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas) ruled that states cannot pass laws to limit corruption and the buying of state and local elections by the wealthy. However; the Supreme Court Five did feel it was prudent to impose new limits on political contributions from unions- which shows the true colors of  the Citizens United ruling in Jan 2010. It is not about free speech, but rather is a slow motion coup d'etat to replace democracy with a plutocracy where the 1% rule and the voice of the people is silenced.

As John Nichols of The Nation put it, "If Exxon Mobil* wants to spend $10 million to support a favored candidate in a state legislative or city council race that might decide whether the corporation is regulated, or whether it gets new drilling rights, it can. But why stop at $10 million? If it costs $100 million to shout down the opposition, the court says that is fine. If if costs $1 billion, that's fine, too."

In another example, Nichols points out a company like Walmart may decide they do not want to pay local taxes. Now thanks to the far reaching tentacles of Citizens United, Walmart can buy local politicians who will agree with them- local schools and public services be damned.

In Montana, there has been a ban on corporate electioneering for over a century. This was based on the state's corrupt history in which copper barons (one was called one of the wealthiest men in the world) owned the newspapers and "ran the state government like their own subsidiary". In 2011, Montana upheld the ban which had worked so well for a century.

Some were holding out hope that in reviewing the Montana ban, that some aspects of Citizens United could be reheard, especially as the decision's claim that super PACS would be independent of the candidates is patently false. One only has to look at the 2012 presidential race to see billionaires like Sheldon "The Palestinians are an Invented People" Adelson and Foster "Put an Aspirin between Your Knees" Fiesss being highly involved in their candidates' races. Does anyone believe they do not expect anything from donating hundreds of millions of dollars?

"Two Supreme Court justices, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, issued a short statement when the Court took the Montana case, saying they hoped their colleagues would use the case to revisit these aspects of Citizens United. A variety of legal briefs were filed arguing the same thing. Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said wealthy interests were using the threat of outsized donations to super PACs to threaten elected officials—giving another real-life example of Citizen United’s anti-democratic impact." (Steven Rosenfeld, Alternet)

But the Partisan Five were not swayed. They seem to be doubling down on what Justice Kennedy wrote in the majority (by one person) opinion in Citizens United regarding unlimited spending by mega-wealthy corporations - he said such expenditures “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”

We, the people wholeheartedly disagree. About 85% of Americans (democrat, republican and independentt) want Citizens United overturned. About 100 resolutions on local and state levels (3 states so far) have been passed to overturn the disastrous ruling. The US Conference of Mayors unanimously passed a resolution this month stating that corporations should not receive the same legal rights as natural citizens and that money is not speech. They called for the most urgent action to reverse Citizens United.

Get involved- Go to freespeechforpeople.org and movetoamend.org. There is also a weekly Move to Amend meeting in Saugerties, NY- http://www.facebook.com/groups/145647712228380/

The Shame photo also refers to the fact that the high court just gave the thumbs up to racial profiling by upholding  "your papers please" aspect of AZ's immigration law.

“In his famous speech at Gettysburg during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln talked about America as a country ‘of the people, by the people and for the people.’ Today, as a result of the Supreme Court’s refusal to reconsider its decision in Citizens United, we are rapidly moving toward a nation of the super-rich, by the super-rich and for the super-rich. That is not what America is supposed to be about. This Supreme Court decision must be overturned.” Senator Bernie Sanders

*If Exxon Mobil had spent just 2 percent of its 2008 profits in the last presidential election, it would have outspent McCain and Obama combined. The danger to democracy is very real.