On foreign influence, experts back Obama

[babylonsister]

On foreign influence, experts back Obama

Conservatives claim the president lied in his State of the Union speech -- but nonpartisan experts agree with him

By Joe Conason


Today the Wall Street Journal editorial page joined the chorus of usual suspects claiming the president lied when he said the following about the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United:

"I believe {that decision} will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections."

Let's leave aside for a moment the obvious rejoinder, namely that neither the Journal's editorialists nor any of his other critics can possibly know whether Obama actually "believes" what he said or not. Instead, let's revisit the issue at hand, which is whether foreign interests will now be able to influence American elections.

The Politifact Web site, in a post that curiously described Obama's remark as "barely true," went on to quote legal experts who provided clear support for his concerns. Robert Kelner, chairman of the election and political law practice group at Covington and Burling, said: "Some people think that Kennedy's opinion in Citizens United logically leads there. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. We don't know for sure." Brett Kappel, who specializes in political law at Arent Fox, said the majority opinion "certainly could be read as declaring this provision unconstitutional, so I'd have to say the president's interpretation is correct -- but we won't really know for sure until a court rules on the issue."

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http://www.salon.com/news/state_of_the_union/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/01/29/journalforeign