Special interests win, we lose ( Star-Ledger Editorial Board)

[struggle4progress]

January 22, 2010, 5:45AM

The conservative majority of the Supreme Court just made a mockery of its claim to judicial restraint, overturning decades of law and legal precedent with a decision that will inevitably corrupt our democracy.

More than a century ago, President Teddy Roosevelt saw what today’s court is blind to — that unleashing corporations to drench our political campaigns in special interest money will drown out the voice of regular citizens.

Roosevelt banned corporate political spending by signing the Tillman Act in 1907. Four decades later, Congress extended the same ban to unions. Supreme courts have affirmed these limits as legitimate several times since.

But Thursday, in a 5-4 decision, this supposedly conservative court swept all that away. So now, instead of soliciting their employees or members for voluntary donations to political action committees, unions and corporations can tap their general funds for political causes, allowing them to spend much more ...

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2010/01/reckless_supreme_court_ruling.html

[liberal N proud]

1. United Corporations of America

[mediaman007]

2. Can foreign corporations participate too?

We will be run by China! Nice move Scalia!

[secondwind]

3. corporations with foreign interests are included in this decision. SCOTUS

just drove a stake through the heart of our democracy. I'll bet that Liz Cheney's "corporation" will get lots of Daddy's millions, beginning today.