a new species (2)
I would have just twittered this article, found via orgtheory.net, but it was too good to pass up for a quick late night quotes-only blog entry:
During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court's majority conservatives seemed persuaded that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled.
But Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong -- and that instead the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights flesh-and-blood people have.
Judges "created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons," she said. "There could be an argument made that that was the court's error to start with...[imbuing] a creature of state law with human characteristics."
...
On today's court, the direction Justice Sotomayor suggested is unlikely to prevail. During arguments, the court's conservative justices seem to view corporate political spending as beneficial to the democratic process. "Corporations have lots of knowledge about environment, transportation issues, and you are silencing them during the election," Justice Anthony Kennedy said during arguments last week.
I'm sure it's a real hard guess as to who I agree with more. =)
2 comments:
To me, the current campaign finance laws are a mess. You can spend as much as you want, as long as you put it into a 527 organization, which wink wink won't work directly with a candidate. Then there's 'bundlers', who 'gather' donations from other people but are not just circumventing the personal contribution limit, supposedly.
I'd rather have a more transparent and free process. If corporations want to donate a ton of cash to a campaign, I think they should be allowed. Just let me know which ones do it so I know not to invest with a company that would waste money like that.
Good point about the current state of campaign finance laws, though I'm skeptical that if laws were changed, if corporations would actually be transparent. Nor do I trust the politicans who receive large amounts of corporate funds, to represent their constituents rather than corporate interests.
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