Rise of the Corporate Court: How the Supreme Court is Putting Businesses First

[imurhuckleberry]

From Bush v. Gore to Citizens United v. FEC: The Making of a Corporate Democracy, 2000-2010

A decade ago in Bush v. Gore,1 five Justices on the United States Supreme Court intervened in the 2000 presidential election to halt the counting of more than 100,000 ballots in Florida, thus delivering the presidency to the preferred candidate of America's largest corporations--like Enron, Haliburton, Exxon-Mobil, Blackwater, AIG and Goldman Sachs. These corporations proceeded to shape public policy in significant ways, promoting financial deregulation, privatization and the spread of corporate welfare, the contracting out of warfare, and the creation of what economist James Galbraith has called a "predator state."

In 2010, in Citizens United v. FEC,2 a case that dealt originally with the question of whether the electioneering communications provisions of the McCain-Feingold Act apply to "pay-per-view" movies produced by not-for-profit entities, five Justices on the Court, including the two named by President Bush himself--Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito--reached out to ask a question that had not been posed to them. They then answered it, announcing that private businesses – including for-profit corporations - have a right to spend as much money as they want to elect or defeat candidates in political campaigns at all levels. The decision reversed numerous Supreme Court precedents and toppled dozens of long-standing campaign finance laws at the federal and state level, clearing the field to permanently remake America's popular democracy into something like a "corporate democracy."

Americans across the spectrum have been startled and appalled by the Citizens United decision, which will "open the floodgates for special interests—including foreign companies—to spend without limit in our elections," as President Obama said in his 2010 State of the Union Address. According to a Washington Post nationwide poll, more than 80% of the American people reject the Court's conclusion that a business corporation is a member of the political community entitled to the same free speech rights as citizens.3

Yet, the Court's watershed ruling is the logical expression of an activist pro-corporatist jurisprudence that has been bubbling up for many decades on the Court but has gained tremendous momentum over the last generation. Since the Rehnquist Court, there have been at least five justices—and sometimes more—who tilt hard to the right when it comes to a direct showdown between corporate power and the public interest. During the Roberts Court, this trend has continued and intensified. Although there is still some fluidity among the players, it is reasonable to think of a reliable "corporate bloc" as having emerged on the Court.

continue reading...http://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/the-business-of-justice-how-the-supreme-court-putting-corporations-first



Last paragraph "It goes without saying that the people must act over time to rebuild the wall of separation that the Court has torn down. In the meantime, it is imperative that the president nominate and the Senate confirm Justices who will place the first three words of the Constitution—"We, the People"—above the relentless juridical project to put corporations first. "

[glitch]

1. K & R thanks for posting and welcome to DU! nt

[Enthusiast]

2. The Citizens United decision

must be legislated out of existence. And right fucking now!

[Uncle Joe]

3. This is a good history of this radical court's distorted view of justice and low regard

in which they hold the American People.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, imurhuckleberry.:thumbsup: