Supreme Court legalizes everything America hates about lobbyists buying Washington (The Hill)

[struggle4progress]

By Brent Budowsky - 01/22/10 09:48 AM ET

Chief Justice John Roberts did not tell the truth in his confirmation hearings when he claimed he would respect stare decisis, the idea of legal precedent. The Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited corporate cash to buy unlimited political power through unlimited political spending is one of the greatest single attacks on democracy in the history of jurisprudence, and one of the single greatest demonstrations of contempt for legal precedent in the history of the United States Supreme Court.

Now the capital that is bought and paid for by lobbyists already will be even more bought and even more paid for. Now our politics, which is in wide disrepute, will be deluged with an onslaught of negative television ads, at first used as blackmail threats by lobbyists to win votes on the floor of Congress for special-interest legislation, and if blackmail fails, which it rarely does in this town, the money will be used to finance media "hit men" running ads full of lies, deceit and fear-mongering.

Think about it: There is a populist revolt from the left and right throughout the nation, but the policymaking and ideological political agenda of the Supreme Court majority now gives the dominating power to those with the most money and destroys into virtual silence the free-speech rights of those without the money to buy the speech, and the power to buy the votes, in the Congress that only pretends to be of the people, by the people and for the people.

This decision will grow to be hated by the people of the nation. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy will go down in history alongside predecessors on the court who upheld the practice of slavery and were later condemned by the high court of history ...

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-judiciary/77489-supreme-court-legalizes-everything-america-hates-about-lobbyists-buying-washington