Report: Supreme Court on verge of overturning campaign finance laws
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/09/09/supreme-court-on-verge-of-overturning-campaign-finance-laws/By David Edwards Published: September 9, 2009
McCain, Feingold: Roberts vote ‘could have serious consequences for our democracy’
The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that began with a film attacking Hillary Clinton, but could end up having far-reaching ramifications. The Associated Press notes that the Justices are effectively weighing “whether to allow corporations and labor unions to pay for political campaigns and end a century of legislative efforts to curb such spending.”
NBC’s Pete Williams reported that five Justices indicated support for overturning prohibitions on the contributions of corporations and labor unions.
The AP reports that “newly seated Justice Sonia Sotomayor jumped right into the questioning. She appeared skeptical about taking the far-reaching step of lifting the ban, a move urged on the court by a lawyer for a group that made the 90-minute movie that sought to undermine Clinton’s presidential ambitions.”
So, the AP story continues, “The focus of the case will be on whether two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, are willing to overrule earlier decisions that had upheld the restrictions.”
“Besides Roberts and Alito, the other three conservative-leaning justices, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, are on record opposing the restrictions on corporations and unions,” the AP story adds. “Restrictions on corporations have been around for more than 100 years; limits on unions date from the 1940s.”
Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) held a press conference to express their concerns. “There’s certain judges who are alleging that somehow corporations have the same rights as citizens. I don’t accept that premise,” said McCain.
McCain concluded, “The one thing I know is that if the court overturns long-standing demands — long before McCain/Feingold as it’s called, the ban on corporate and union campaign contributions, I think you will see an era of corruption.”
“I think Senator McCain and Senator Feingold have every reason to be worried because it did sound from extraordinary oral arguments that we just heard in the U.S. Supreme Court that the court is on the verge of making a huge change in the laws governing where the money comes from in American politics,” NBC’s Williams observed.
Williams added, “You never know when this thing is finally written how narrow it might be but it did sound today there were five votes on the Supreme Court to strike that law down.”
Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) held a press conference to express their concerns.
However, a statement released by the senators notes, “It is important to note that the case reargued today does not affect the core of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law – the ban on large, unregulated donations to the political parties by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals. Nonetheless, at stake in this case are the voices of millions and millions of Americans that could be drowned out by large corporations if the decades-old restrictions on corporate electioneering are called into question. Overturning the Austin decision would open the floodgates to unlimited corporate spending during elections and undermine election laws across the country. Those able to spend tens of millions of dollars, like a Fortune 500 company, are much more likely to be heard during an election than average American voters.”
The McCain/Feingold statement continues, ““It was just six years ago that the Supreme Court upheld the electioneering communications provision in McCain-Feingold and nothing has happened in that time to warrant the drastic step of overruling that decision. During his confirmation hearing, Chief Justice Roberts, whom we both voted for, promised to respect precedent. If he casts the deciding vote to overrule Austin and McConnell, it would completely contradict that promise, and could have serious consequences for our democracy.”
This video is from MSNBC’s News Live, broadcast Sept. 9, 2009.
