Get Ready or Citizens United Part Two - We're About to Get Even More Royally Screwed

[Triana]

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has never struck down a federal limit on campaign contributions. But that may be about to change, judging from the justices’ questions on Tuesday during the argument of a major campaign finance case.

The justices seemed to divide along familiar ideological lines.

“By having these limits, you are promoting democratic participation,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said. “Then the little people will count some.”

Justice Antonin Scalia responded, sarcastically, that he assumed “a law that only prohibits the speech of 2 percent of the country is O.K.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who probably holds the crucial vote, indicated that he was inclined to strike down overall limits on contributions to several candidates, but not a separate overall limit on contributions to several political committees.

The case, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, No. 12-536, is a sort of sequel to the court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United, which struck down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions. The new case is an attack on the other main pillar of federal campaign finance regulation: limits on contributions made directly to political candidates and party committees.

THE REST:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/us/politics/supreme-court-weighs-campaign-contribution-limits.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-thecaucus&_r=0

(Interesting timing - this, with the Teabag Terrorists holding our gov't hostage at the same time) <-------

[blkmusclmachine]

1. The Oligarchs want EVERYTHING,

including the blood that runs through your veins.

[KansDem]

2. Since Scalia, Thomas, and Alito have been hobnobbing at political fund raisers...

Alito, Thomas Headlined Political Fundraisers Chaired By Leading Right-Wing Donor Paul Singer
By Lee Fang on January 26, 2011 at 10:00 am

A few months ago, ThinkProgress launched a series of investigations into relationship of the right flank of the Supreme Court — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Antonin Scalia — with corporate donors and Republican operatives. In October, we revealed, through a document obtained from Koch Industries, that Scalia and Thomas had attended secret right-wing fundraisers organized by Charles Koch to coordinate political strategy. ThinkProgress has now discovered more events attended by conservative Supreme Court justices.

The Manhattan Institute, funded by major corporations like CIGNA, Koch Industries and ExxonMobil, is a conservative think tank in New York that produces right-wing policy papers as well as sponsoring speeches for judges and Republican politicians. In 2008, Justice Thomas headlined the Manhattan Institute’s Wriston Lecture; last October, Justice Alito was the headline speaker for the same event. According to the Manhattan Institute’s website, an individual must contribute between $5,000 to $25,000 to attend the Wriston Lecture. “To be invited to the Wriston Lecture,” Debbie Ezzard, a development official at the Manhattan Institute told ThinkProgress, “you have to give $5,000.”

During the question and answer period of the Wriston Lecture, Roger Hertog, a major neoconservative donor, asked Alito if he would attend the 2011 State of the Union. Ironically, Alito — while speaking at a political fundraiser filled with powerful conservative donors — said he would avoid the event because it has “become very political”

--more--
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/01/26/140655/alito-thomas-singer/

...we will see more SCOTUS rulings formed by politics rather than interpreting the Constitution.

[Triana]

3. They should be impeached for this.

Of course our current Teabagger Terrorist-run CONgress would never do that but that's what *should* be done.

NO supreme court justice should be seen publicly hobnobbing with ANY political organizations. Doing so compromises their judgement and delegitimizes their rulings. Their honor should be seen as having no credibility when they do this.

They're reduced to nothing but political operatives doing the bidding of their friends.

[KoKo]

4. There was so much about Thomas's Wife that came out and Thomas

himself and wasn't Scalia involved in some stuff that should have had him step down in scandal?

I can't remember it all now but I do know that the Thomas and his wife certainly were involved in "conflict of interest" with her affiliation with a RW Group and fundraising or something...

Whatever, there was a lot of reporting about Thomas and Scalia...and then it went nowhere.
I think that was all back in '09 or 10? Earlier than this latest from "Think Progress."

[Triana]

5. He and his wife, if I remember correctly, had been openly involved with Tea Party functions.

His wife is a Tea Party member.

All of this should have them impeached from the court. But it'll never happen with this congress.