GOP Asks Supreme Court To Uphold Citizens United, Wants More Corporate Cash In Elections

[nanaofsix531]

GOP Asks Supreme Court To Uphold Citizens United, Wants More Corporate Cash In Elections

May 2, 2012

By Justin "Filthy Liberal Scum" Rosario

Double my bribe and I'll be your corporate whore forever

Mitch McConnell is through pretending he represents anyone but the 1% and his corporate paymasters. Yesterday, McConnell filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to summarily judge in favor of upholding its Citizens United ruling by ruling on a case without even hearing oral arguments. The case in question is Western Tradition Partnership v. Bullock originating in Montana. The Montana Supreme Court  had ruled that there must be limits on corporate campaign spending due to a clear history of its corrupting influence. The SCOTUS agreed to hear the case to see if Montana’s laws can overrule the top court of the land.

It is easy to understand the panic of the GOP as the overturning of Citizens United would be a disaster for them. It would take only a single conservative Justice to change their mind and their greatest electoral advantage would be negated. Such a vote would not be difficult to find. Justice Samuel Alito famously made a spectacle of himself at the 2010 State of the Union address by mouthing the words “not true” when President Obama stated that corporate money would distort the electoral process. Since then, it has become obvious to even the least politically aware individual that something is wrong. At least one of the five conservative Justices must recognize their error based on two years of empirical evidence.

The fact that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is pushing to have the case dismissed means he is aware of this as well. So is the US Chamber of Commerce, the corporate lobby, which also filed a brief to have the cased summarily ruled on. The move from the Chamber of Commerce is to be expected but McConnell is moving against public opinion on this matter. Over 70% of the country wants limits on corporate spending, including more than half of McConnell’s own base. McConnell has signaled who he really serves and it is not the people of the United States. Hopefully, someone will remind the voters of that when he is up for reelection.

[Mamawto4]

 Citizens United has to be corrected through campaign finance rules.  People don't fully understand the legalities of corporations being considered legal persons.  If corporations are found not to be legal persons, a whole mess of things will happen that will hurt the average person.

Corporations being treated as legal persons, means that a business itself can own property under the business name.  Without being able to own such things as assets and bank accounts, there would be no such thing as stockholders.  Pensions and other retirement accounts would become obsolete, and only the wealthiest of people would be able to afford a part ownership in a large business.

Corporations being treated as legal persons, also allows someone to sue a corporation, rather than having to sue each individual person who owns a share of the company.  To remove this would make lawsuits unatainable by the average person, and again only be something the most wealthiest amongst us could do.

It also allows a corporation to enter into a contract without having to get every person who owns a share of the company to sign the contract.  Having to get thousands of signatures for the simplest of things (like having a room painted, sending a fed-ex...) would completely stop a company from operating.

If corporations are not allowed to use money for political purposes, how will that effect TV and radio news?  Will editorials have to be banned, because they are opinions?  If not, why should a media corporation have political clout, but a dry cleaners does not?

Will organizations like Planned Parenthood, labor unions, teacher unions, the NAACP and the League of Women's voters have to all but close up shop?  all of these organizations use collective money to advocate for their own agendas.

Or will we have to begin censoring, with all of the political information that we get coming from the government?

[_Kissy_]

it's interesting to see the top 5 donors of Obama and Romney

[erika9009]

Unions want jobs, but only union jobs. 

Quoting sillygirl83:

Exactly what I was thinking.  I also think the special interests that give to democrats, especially these two are far more harmful because they kill job creation.  At least corporations want to expand, creating jobs in the process.  Unions just want to stand in the way.

Quoting erika9009:

The have to combat the amounts given to the Dems by Unions (public and private) and the illegal immigration activists.