3 Reasons Not To Sweat The "Citizens United" SCOTUS Ruling

No recent Supreme Court ruling have evoked more liberal fury than Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a campaign-finance case involving government censorship of a political documentary called Hillary: The Movie.

The Federal Election Commission prevented the anti-Hillary Clinton film from being shown on television just before the 2008 Democratic primaries, a decision that was upheld by lower courts. Siding with The First Amendment, the Court struck down laws regulating independent political advertising by for-profit and non-profit corporations before an election even as they reaffirmed rules about disclosure and disclosures for ads and against direct corporate giving to candidates.

Critics fear that corporations will now overwhelm the political marketplace with commercials and advertisements that will program citizens to vote for whatever agenda "the corprations" want at a given moment.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann railed against the decision, calling it "a Supreme Court-sanctioned murder of what little democracy is left in this democracy" and comparing it to the notorious Dred Scott decision, which ruled that blacks had no rights under the Constitution. His fellow corporate media host at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, exclaimed, "If you are a regular person who has ever made a campaign donation before, forget about ever having to do that again. What's the point?"

Cyberlaw theorist Lawrence Lessig has called for a consitutional amendment to roll back the Citizens United ruling and President Barack Obama called out the Supreme Court during his 2010 State of the Union address, proclaiming to a standing ovation: "The Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections."

Is there any truth to some hyperbolic, doomsday scenarios? In a word, no.

The Citizens United ruling increases freedom of political speech, not simply for powerful, politically connected corporations like Citigroup, AIG, and the companies that run The New York Times and other media outlets, but for small-pocketed nonprofits such as Citizens United too.

If you want to get bent out of shape about something, direct your ire at a massive and constantly growing government that has its hands in virtually every aspect of economic and social life in America.

"3 Reasons Not to Sweat The Citizens United Ruling" was written and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie, who also hosts.

Approximately 3.30 minutes. Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable versions.

Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel and receive automatic notifications when new material goes online.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• citizens united
• citizens united v. fec
• fec
• federal election commission
• campaign finance
• mccain-feingold
• free speech
• first amendment
• keith olbermann
• rachel madow
• barack obama
• mccain
• feinold
• meredith bragg
• nick gillespie
• reason.com
• reason.org
• reason.tv
• reason magazine
• reason foundation

[poop2poop2]

@1MeanBean Didn't know we were a democracy, all this time I thought we were a Constitutional Republic.

[thomasdonaldclark]

You missed the point entirely. What a shame.

[andyissemicool]

@2411Hellokitty: He sounds like a real standup guy.

[2411Hellokitty]

@andyissemicool Funny you should mention the right to vote b/c MortimerTheClueless supports citizens united yet also posted this video which states that citizens who disagree should be stripped of their right to vote and forced to take medication.

AsJjlC3WaTY

[andyissemicool]

@MortimerTheClueless: Yeah, this Supreme Court judgement also made it illegal for citizens to vote and decipher the truth from political commercials. It's so sad that 99 percent can no longer vote :(

[MortimerTheClueless]

This SCOTUS case is the nail in the coffin our declining country. The top 1% will have so much wealth and power that the bottom 99% will never be free again. We really don't have a democracy now. We don't even have a country anymore. It's over.

[666or999]

@wangsta25 A group is a collection of individuals. I thought that was obvious.

[wangsta25]

@poop2poop2 Didn't know we were a Constitutional Republic. Last time I checked not a lot of our officials actually "represent" the views of the people. The Constitution protects individuals but the Constitution never stated corporations as individuals. All this time I thought we were a Plutocracy.

[wangsta25]

I thought Libertarians were apeshit over INDIVIDUAL rights, well corporations and unions are COLLECTIVE organizations which consists of big GROUPS of people with common agendas. Our Constitution guarantees us the freedom of SPEECH, not the freedom of PURCHASE.

[cmtsoccer9]

Corporations are not people, and them giving money is not free speech.

[wwwslowmotionca]

I am all for free speech, but we must realize that speech is no longer free if it requires money to be heard!!!

Allowing any type of organization to heavily influence an election by providing ridiculous amounts of capital for its candidate of choice will ultimately lead to bought and paid for politicians who will be pressured into fulfilling the desires of said organization. Obviously, we are not without this to some degree already, but it will only get worse without campaign finance reform.