Roberts Delivers ‘Jolt’ in Overturning Campaign-Finance Rulings (Stohr | Bloomberg)

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By Greg Stohr

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- In 2005 John Roberts, then the nominee to be U.S. chief justice, told a Senate panel, “It is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent.”

Roberts did exactly that yesterday, casting a pivotal vote as the Supreme Court voided two precedents and struck down decades-old restrictions on corporate campaign spending.

The ruling marked the most assertive step yet for the Roberts-led court, showing a new willingness to overturn past decisions. In past election-law cases, Roberts and fellow George W. Bush appointee Samuel Alito opted for more limited rulings that trimmed precedents rather than reversing them directly.

“The decision shows that on core constitutional questions, which could also extend for example to abortion and religion, the court’s more conservative members are willing to overrule precedent they think is fundamentally wrong,” said Tom Goldstein, a Washington lawyer at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and the creator of the Scotusblog Web site, which tracks the court ...

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