What did the Supreme Court decide in Citizens United? What does this mean for our Democracy? A sharply divided Supreme Court decided that the American people are powerless to stop corporations from using corporate funds to influence state and federal elections. The 5-4 decision ruled that the restrictions on corporate expenditures in elections contained in the federal Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (known as BCRA or “McCain-Feingold”) violated the First Amendment protections of free speech.
The ruling dramatically expands the new “corporate rights” doctrine that has transformed the First Amendment in recent years, and exposes an already-corrupted political process to a new flow of billions of dollars of corporate money.
The result in Citizens United is radical. To accomplish this, the majority - - Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy and Alito - - had to overrule two previous cases where the Court ruled correctly that Congress and the States may try to keep corporate money out of politics. In the Citizens United case, the Court cast aside a 2003 decision, McConnell v. FEC, where the Court upheld the very provision it now ruled unconstitutional, and a 1990 decision, Austin v. Chamber of Commerce, where the Court had ruled that a Michigan law limiting corporate expenditures in elections did not violate the First Amendment.
The Court’s action dramatically dilutes the vote and the voice of every American who does not control a large corporate treasury. The decision unleashes billions of dollars in corporate money to dominate legislatures and elections.
Pretending that corporate wealth is “speech” beyond the ability of the American people to regulate will cost our democracy dearly. To illustrate the magnitude of the potential financial corruption of our elections, compare the amount of corporate money now available to influence elections to the level of fundraising before Citizens United, when corporate money in politics could be regulated. Corporate profits alone - - after taxes - - amounted to over $1.1 trillion in 2006. (Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, Table 767). Under pre-Citizens United rules, the average House candidate in 2008 spent $1.3 million, and the average Senate candidate spent $3.1 million. (Center for Responsive Politics, Price of Admission, 2008).
Before Citizens United, it was undisputable that corporate influence distorted our political process. After Citizens United, with over a trillion dollars in corporate money available for misuse in elections, it is hard to dispute that the Court has broken our democracy. (read more)
