Campaign finance Supreme Court decision: Justices blind to the corruption of cash

[struggle4progress]

By John Farmer/The Star-Ledger
January 24, 2010, 5:29AM

... Money is political speech, the court held, and can’t be curbed. It’s all the same, whether it’s Bill Gates’ billions or the nickels and dimes in the tin cup of the blind guy on the corner; whether it’s Goldman Sachs using its millions to beat back financial regulations in Washington or the piggy bank change available to individuals or public-interest advocacy groups fighting for reform. All the same.

But if the five justices who wrote the majority decision really believe that, then they’re spending too much time in chambers; they should get out a little more. Corporate cash is corrupting our politics and shredding faith in the system, as the government’s solicitor-general argued in a losing fight to keep the curbs on corporate spending and level the field between haves and have-nots.

It’s by no means a fair fight when citizen groups are forced to go up against Corporate America in the political arena.

"The nature of business corporations," the solicitor-general’s brief maintained, "makes corporate political activity inherently more likely than individual advocacy to cause quid quo pro corruption." It went on to warn of an increase in "pay-to-play" that hands a huge advantage to the boys in the board room because they’re better able "to afford the ante" ...

http://blog.nj.com/njv_john_farmer/2010/01/campaign_finance_supreme_court.html

[Hekate]

1. KnR

[midnight]

2. They are way to schooled in the art of politics to be blind.... I think they are

enjoying some of the perks of "pay-to-play".

[Demeter]

3. Au Contraire, The SC Justices Were VERY Open to the Corruption of Cash!

We just need to catch them at it....

[CanonRay]

4. They system is no longer broken

it's gone. That is all.

[Gman2]

5. Here's that permanent majority Cheney ordered. He's gonna give them bad feedback for slow shipping.