The Felonious Five prepares to take another crap on democracy

[marmar]

from the Wall Street Journal:



Campaign-Finance Ruling Looms
By JESS BRAVIN


Montana voters, fed up with the grip of out-of-state mining interests on local politicians, passed an initiative in 1912 banning corporate spending on candidates for state office. As soon as Tuesday, that law -- and similar ones in nearly half the states -- could be struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court for infringing corporations' free-speech rights.

None of those state laws specifically were at issue when the court agreed to hear Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which challenged provisions of the federal McCain-Feingold Act. The 2002 law built on a longstanding ban on direct corporate giving to House, Senate and presidential candidates by reining in so-called issue advertisements, such as television spots a corporation takes out on its own to help a particular politician's election or defeat.

Under the law, corporations and unions may not use general funds for such advertisements within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election. Instead, they must channel their electioneering through political action committees that solicit contributions from executives, employees, shareholders and other affiliates of the corporation.

The case initially involved a feature-length movie attacking then-presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, produced by a conservative advocacy group chartered as a nonprofit corporation. But instead of delivering an opinion after March arguments, the Supreme Court in June ordered re-argument on a much broader question: Should prior cases that upheld restrictions on corporate independent expenditures be overruled?

In 1990, the court voted 6-3 to uphold the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, which, like the McCain-Feingold provision, required corporations to raise funds through political action committees for their electioneering efforts, rather than draw from profits or general treasuries. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126023967777081231.html

[RC]

1. We need to get rid of the cooperations as persons legal fiction.

The United States is the only country in the world with this BS.
Corporations should not have free speech. Corporations need regulations to operate under.