The Supreme Court's decision in 2010, Citizens United, was the most brazen attempt by the Court to make our already tentative democracy into an outright plutocracy. This ruling basically allows corporations, unions and individuals to put unlimited amounts of money into whatever election they want to affect, whether it is federal, state or local, without even safeguards as to the nationality make-up of these corporations or unions; in other words, these entities can have significant foreign influence within them, if not predominately.
The Court has overturned at least a century of election law in this nation and decimated nearly all limitations on money in elections, thus allowing the very wealthy, including foreigners connected to corporations, to have near carte blanche control of monetary influences on U.S. elections. The group of 5 "Tea Party" justices, of the 9 justices on the Court, named Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Roberts and Alito, have moved America as close to an oligarchy as the nation has ever been, and they appear to be on a drive to remove the last remaining remnants of real democracy from the nation.
The Court is also after state or local campaign finance assistance to non-wealthy candidates, those laws that some states and localities have implemented to assist candidates that have little or no corporate or well-heeled financial backers for their campaigns. In 2011, the Court struck down an Arizona law that provided additional money to publicly financed candidates who faced opponents with big money. The 5 "Tea Partiers" on the "Scalia Court" (technically, it's the Roberts Court, but Scalia is the real head of the Court) are doing everything possible to prevent even a modicum of monetary fairness in elections, and are probably not done, yet. Look for them to whittle down public campaign financing laws (in general, the best though relatively tepid attempt to bring fair elections to the nation), to the point that they become hollowed out and practically useless.
[revised on 10/18/14]
The Court has overturned at least a century of election law in this nation and decimated nearly all limitations on money in elections, thus allowing the very wealthy, including foreigners connected to corporations, to have near carte blanche control of monetary influences on U.S. elections. The group of 5 "Tea Party" justices, of the 9 justices on the Court, named Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Roberts and Alito, have moved America as close to an oligarchy as the nation has ever been, and they appear to be on a drive to remove the last remaining remnants of real democracy from the nation.
The Court is also after state or local campaign finance assistance to non-wealthy candidates, those laws that some states and localities have implemented to assist candidates that have little or no corporate or well-heeled financial backers for their campaigns. In 2011, the Court struck down an Arizona law that provided additional money to publicly financed candidates who faced opponents with big money. The 5 "Tea Partiers" on the "Scalia Court" (technically, it's the Roberts Court, but Scalia is the real head of the Court) are doing everything possible to prevent even a modicum of monetary fairness in elections, and are probably not done, yet. Look for them to whittle down public campaign financing laws (in general, the best though relatively tepid attempt to bring fair elections to the nation), to the point that they become hollowed out and practically useless.
[revised on 10/18/14]
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