Posted by James V. Lacy at 12:00 am on Sep 09, 2009 Comments Off on This post is about the Supreme Court and the FEC; not sex in Sacramento
The other news today besides the
unexpected and Claude Rains-like shocking information about an
Assemblyman having sex with lobbyists in Sacramento, comes from the
halls of the United States Supreme Court, where a special second
oral argument was held in the Citizens United vs.
Federal Election Commission case that I have written
about here before. Without going into too much detail
on the legal mumbo jumbo, from the questions asked of the lawyers,
it looks like there is a pretty firm 5-4 majority (at least to this
observer) in favor of overturning the longstanding ban on corporate
contributions in Federal political campaigns. For election
lawyers, reading such a decision would be a little like being an
Israelite observing Moses parting the Red Sea. But it
is a question squarely before the count, and Justices Kennedy,
Scalia and Thomas are absolutely on board with this notion, and by
their questions, it appears that Justice Alito and Chief Justice
Roberts are on the verge of deciding that the First Amendment
belongs to everybody, including people who work for corporations
(and likely unions to follow). Judge Sotomayor’s… Read More