The Supreme Court ruled today that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns. The court overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads.
The justices also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that barred union- and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.
It is important to note that the decision does not affect McCain-Feingold's soft money ban, which will continue to prevent corporate contributions to the political parties from corrupting the political process. But this decision was a terrible mistake. Presented with a relatively narrow legal issue, the Supreme Court chose to roll back laws that have limited the role of corporate money in federal elections since Teddy Roosevelt was president. Ignoring important principles of judicial restraint and respect for precedent, the Court has given corporate money a breathtaking new role in federal campaigns. Just six years ago, the Court said that the prohibition on corporations and unions dipping into their treasuries to influence campaigns was 'firmly embedded in our law.' Yet this Court has just upended that prohibition, and a century's worth of campaign finance law designed to stem corruption in government. The American people will pay dearly for this decision when, more than ever, their voices are drowned out by corporate spending in our federal elections. In the coming weeks, I will work with my colleagues to pass legislation restoring as many of the critical restraints on corporate control of our elections as possible.
Today's Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case is a disaster for the American people and a dark day for the Supreme Court.
The decision will unleash unprecedented amounts of corporate "influence-seeking" money on our elections and create unprecedented opportunities for corporate "influence-buying" corruption.
Today's decision is the most radical and destructive campaign finance decision in Supreme Court history. In order to reach the decision, five justices abandoned longstanding judicial principles, judicial precedents and judicial restraint.
With the Citizens United opinion, Chief Justice Roberts has abandoned the illusory public commitments he made to "judicial modesty" and "respect for precedent" to cast the deciding vote for a radical decision that profoundly undermines our democracy.
In a stark choice between the right of American citizens to a government free from "influence-buying" corruption and the economic and political interests of American corporations, five Supreme Court Justices today came down in favor of American corporations.
With a stroke of the pen, five Justices wiped out a century of American history devoted to preventing corporate corruption of our democracy.
This egregious decision turns back the clock on over 60 years of precedent.
A corporation is not, nor has it ever been, a person with voting rights. Corporations are not your neighbors, they cannot get married, they cannot die, and a corporation is not part of "We the People," she added. "It is essential that we fix this misstep by the courts, before we see the landscape of elections financing washed away in a raging flashflood of corporate money.
Statement from Senator Chris Dodd
What a terrible day for American democracy. With this 5-4 decision, a deeply divided Supreme Court has essentially given corporations free rein to drown out the voices of the American people, rejecting the sacred democratic principle of 'one person, one vote.' By overturning the century-old cornerstone of our campaign finance laws, they have opened the floodgates of direct corporate spending, allowing our political discourse and the legislative process to be further corrupted by huge corporations. I intend to pursue every legislative option - including a constitutional amendment to allow Congress and the states to put appropriate limits on campaign spending - to restore the trust and voice of the American people.
Statement from Rep. Rosa DeLauro
With this ill-advised spate of judicial activism, five Supreme Court justices have struck down the distinction between individuals and corporations in election law and opened the floodgates to a hostile corporate takeover of our democratic process.
As Justice Stevens eloquently put it in his dissent from this disastrous decision, "While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics." The ruling by the majority will unleash a raging torrent of corporate cash into our election system, and threatens to undermine and corrode the very functioning of our republic.
In order to counter this blatant overreaching on the Court's part, it now falls upon us in Congress to stem the tide of special interest influence over our political system. I urge my colleagues to pass the Fair Elections Now Act, which would create a voluntary public financing system for congressional elections. And I hope we can work on other ways to make sure that the voices of the people are always heard more strongly in these halls than the dollars of special interests.
President Barack Obama
With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics,'' Obama said in a statement. "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. That's why I am instructing my administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.
Ridgefield First Selectman (and possible gubernatorial candidate) Rudy Marconi
After today's Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, I have to wonder whether the justices ever read the constitution from the very beginning. It starts out, "We the people." Not "We the corporations and special interests.
There is no force more poisonous to the common good than the influence of the moneyed interests on our political system. They are undermining the progress of healthcare reform, finance reform and consumer protection.
Here in Connecticut, our Citizens' Election Program liberated candidates from having to sell themselves to the highest bidder. Yet that program is in jeopardy as well. Unless our legislature fixes it soon, we will revert to the system that earned us the nickname 'Corrupticut.'
I am committed to public financing for my campaign, and I believe the others in the race owe it to the people of Connecticut to make the same pledge. Otherwise, we need to wake up President Lincoln and let him know that 'government of the people, by the people, for the people' didn't make it after all.
This ruling marks a sad day for the rights of individuals making up the bedrock underpinning our democracy," noted Garcia. "We in Connecticut know first-hand what happens when lobbyist interest infiltrates the political process. We need look no further than our last governor, John Rowland, to see sound reasons to keep lobbyists, contractors and corporate interests out of the electoral process."
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We value free speech. We also value clean elections. This ruling seems to tilt the balance in the wrong direction. Our own state history makes us an example of why we must consider every solution possible to keep lobbyist influence and undue business interest out of the electoral process. This decision should bring a greater sense of urgency that ever to our Connecticut General Assembly to fix our own laws so that we can keep the integrity of our process and prevent corruption from entering our system.
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