Thursday, June 28, 2012
Alan Grayson on Supreme Court, corporate cash
We begin tonight - with a Supreme Court ruling this morning that's not getting nearly as much attention as it should - it was in the case: American Tradition Partnership V. Bullock. Or what it should be better known as...Citizens United part deux. The issue at hand was whether or not the state of Montana could ignore the high court's 2010 Citizens United ruling - since the state had a law on the books for more than 100 years that banned corporate spending in state elections. Twenty-two states, plus the District of Columbia, and several lawmakers urged the high court to hear oral arguments in the case and re-litigate Citizens United altogether, now that the damage of the decision is clearly on display two years later. But, in another 5-to-4 ruling, the Conservative justices chose not to hear any oral arguments - and essentially struck down the Montana law - and ruled that it's 2010 Citizens United decision applies not just to federal elections - but to state elections as well. So - for the second time in two years - the Supreme Court has given corporations and millionaires and billionaires the right to spend unlimited amounts of money buying our politicians. And this buyout is well underway as the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and the Chamber of Commerce pledging to spend more than a billion dollars to defeat President Obama and progressives around the nation. So what happens now?
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