By Don Wiltshire
For the last few weeks, some of us have had out attention focused on the horrors taking place in Haiti. Help has arrived, sometimes not soon enough, sometimes just not enough. Now folks have started talking about “helping” to rebuild Haiti and into whose image it should be rebuilt.
While all of this was taking place, the nine US Supreme Court Justices slipped into their black robes and got up-to-no-good. It started out innocently enough: the Supreme Court was asked to rule on the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Citizens United had produced an anti-Hillary Clinton documentary: Hillary, the Woman (which I have not seen yet). The FEC was seeking restrictions on such campaign advertising through the McCain-Feingold Act. The President of Citizens United, David Bossie, it turns out, is the same guy who spent all that time trying to impeach President Bill Clinton.
Now, I have absolutely NO background in Law, and reading the decision left me needing
a shower, kind of like reading the explanation for line 37 on your Federal Tax Form. If you’re still game, all 183 pages of it can be found at www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf.
The conservative majority’s 5-4 ruling overturned more than100 years of legal precedent for restrictions on corporate funding of political candidates. Leading the way was Chief Justice John Roberts with Justices Samuel Alito (both President George W. Bush appointees), Clarence Thomas (appointed by President George H. Bush), Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy (both appointed by President Reagan).
This decision was arrived at through the misguided idea (or perhaps the more lucrative idea) that corporations are “real persons,” entitled to the First Amendment rights of Free Speech. “Free Speech” in this case meaning “campaign contributions.”
The “Dissent” or “Minority Report” (which Tom Cruise has taught us to always pay special attention to) was written by Justice John Paul Stevens (appointed by President Ford). The other three “centrist justices” (there are no liberals on this court) are Justices Ruth Ginsburg, Steven Breyer (both appointed by President Clinton) and Sonia Sotomayor (appointed by President Obama). The dissent starts on page 88 of your pdf format. Even with all of the footnotes, section number references and “wherases” it’s pretty scary reading. The preliminary discussion must have been quite a spectacle, considering the political and family allegiances. I wonder if coffee and grapes were served.
President Obama summed it up fairly well when he said: "With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that, I believe, will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections.”
"I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests or, worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people. And I urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps correct some of these problems."
Well, it just so happens that such a bill has been languishing in the House and Senate, S.752 and H.R.1826. They are called The Fair Election Now Act. They provide for public financing of congressional campaigns. MoveOn.org is urging us to contact Representative Harry Teague at (202) 225-2365 and ask him to help pass this bill.
And, as chance would have it, Dan Armijo, the local “ears” for Harry Teague, will be at the Magdalena Public Library on Feb. 10 from 8:00 a.m. till 2p.m. Come, express your concern over this issue, Health Care Reform, our local “water-grab” issue, the economy, unemployment, in-creased cattle taxes or any other thing that’s bothering you. It’s time to take back our country from those who want only to extract more “taxes” from us in the form of “purchase prices.”
Like Thomas Jefferson said in a letter to Tom Logan, Nov. 12, 1816:
“I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
If you have any Comments? Problems? Solutions? Up coming Events? Campaign Contributions? Contact me at mtn_don@yahoo.com or (575) 854-3370.
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They provide for public winningfinancing of congressional campaigns. MoveOn.org is urging us to contact Representative Harry Teague at (202) 225-2365 and ask him to help sbopass this bill.
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