Posts tagged SCOTUS
Holding Politicians Accountable
There aren’t a lot of functioning democracies around the world that work this way, where you can basically have millionaires and billionaires bankrolling whoever they want, however they want, in some cases undisclosed. And what it means is ordinary Americans are shut out of the process.
The Supreme Court might allow even more big money into politics in a case it hears next week, letting fat cats buy even more political influence. The case is called McCutcheon v. FEC and here’s a BuzzFeed piece explaining how it’s a really big deal.
Check out our report “Country Club Politics” on how the elite donors who would benefit look nothing like the rest of the country.
HuffPost: Supreme Court Gay Marriage Ruling Will Tighten Ethics And Campaign Finance Laws
Another impact of Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision on DOMA:
The Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act will alter a host of ethics and campaign finance laws that apply to elected and appointed officials as well as campaign donors. Ethics laws requiring disclosure of spousal income, banning gifts to spouses from certain sources and banning nepotism will now apply to elected, executive and federal agency officials in same-sex marriages and unions.
Salon: Report: SCOTUS naive on super PACs
“A new report from Public Citizen shows just how absurd it is to assume that outside groups are truly independent. Of all the major super PACs and 501© nonprofit groups that engaged in the 2012 election, about half backed a single candidate exclusively, effectively making themselves auxiliary organs of the candidate’s campaign, the report found.”
Election Law Blog: The Significance of the Supreme Court’s Decision to Hear the McCutcheon Campaign Finance Case
It will be interesting to see if the justices worry half as much about the emerging restrictions on voting as they worried about restrictions on political spending.
Montana vs. the Supreme Court
“So 26 states signed on to the various lawsuits against the Affordable Care Act. You’ve heard about those lawsuits if you’ve been living in Borneo for the last two years. So did you have any idea that 23 states (well, 22 plus DC) have signed on to a challenge to the Citizens United decision?”