Citizens United

     An issue I care about a lot is fair elections.  I think that my dad may have instilled this value in me.  He heads a group, The Brennan Center For Justice, that basically fights for voter rights.  The Brennan Center has had many Supreme Court and state level cases pertaining to voting rights and elections.  I think the most important was the outragous supreme court decision Citizens United.

     The 5-4 Supreme Court ended the ban on unlimited campaign donations by companies and unions.  In this decision, the court set the precedent that corporations have the same rights as citizens.  This is absolutely ridiculous.  Corporations now pump money into lobbying and all sorts of unfair acts.  The decision not only gave companies more "rights," but it took away the equality, power and voting rights of the common man.  Once could relate this issue with Occupy Wall Street.  By giving these corporations the power to secretly pump money into campaigns, they are taking political power from the 99%.  The 99% doesn't have the money to make ads or lobby.  They can vote and give the little extra that they have, if they chose to a campaign.  But all of this money flow corrupts the system.  Elections can now be won by appealing to corporations who care about selling oil, or eliminating unions, or lowering taxes instead of by appealing to the people and the people only.

     This 5-4 court has been moving back from much of the progress we've made in the last 60 years.  Now it has taken the case that argues the Obama Health Care bill is unconstitutional.  I am really scared.  The whole issue of Citizens United outrages me.  The Supreme Court is supposed to interpret the Constitution, not make decisions because of biases.  I hope that Justice Kennedy, the more progressive of the 5 sees the Health Care case for what it is and not as a party case.

http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/citizens_united_v_fec/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html