Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Justice Stevens backs Obama critique of Citizens United decision

Speaking at the Clinton School of Public Service in Arkansas retired Associate Justice John Paul Stevens has strongly backed President Obama's State of the Union Address critique of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.  And, he suggests, the court may move to narrow the impact of the ruling:


On January  27,  2010, in his State of the Union address, President Obama declared: 

"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."! 
In that succinct comment, the former professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School made three important and accurate observations about the Supreme Court majority's opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
First, it did reverse a century of law; second, it did authorize unlimited election-related expenditures by America's most powerful interests; and, third, the logic of the opinion extends to money spent by foreign entities.
The full text is HERE 

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