Not An Activist Court? Bah-Humbug

The decision announced today by the US Supreme Court (Citizens United v. FEC) is an appalling use of judicial activism by the 5 conservative judges (Roberts, Kennedy, Alito, Scalia, Thomas). Instead of narrowly ruling on the facts presented to the Court in last year's term, the Chief Justice asked for and received a re-hearing of the case based on parameters he set. In other words, he wanted to examine whether campaign finance regulations barring corporations from buying advertisements to endorse candidates, was a unconstitutional ban on free speech.

As we all know, the First Amendment is for individuals, but long ago the US Supreme Court decided that corporations are "individuals," and therefore entitled to the same constitutional protections.

This case unravels years of sane campaign finance laws which, while not doing a good job at keeping out obscene amounts of money in federal campaigns, at least had the noble idea that people contributed to a candidate's election. Now, we'll have the candidate from Citibank, the candidate from Boeing, the candidate from Goldman Sachs, from Johnson & Johnson....

And we all know the "magic" of corporate marketing. They managed to convince a whole nation to leverage their homes to the hilt to buy flat screen TVs, granite counter tops, and stainless steel appliances against the homeowner's better interest, just think of the snarky ads they will come up with the convince you to vote for their candidate. Signed, sealed, delivered...Senator Bank of America.

Look at how corporations have perverted and corrupted sports in America. Wow, maybe a corporation can get naming rights to the US Capital or even the White House! Goldman Sachs White House or the Blue Cross US Capital.

I have one more thought: really this decision isn't about "free" speech, it's about bought and paid for speech. Manipulated speech. Advertising speech. It's about marketing a candidate. Instead of Manchurian Candidate, think AIG Candidate, primed and programed to do the bidding of the huge insurance corporation...

May we live in interesting times...we sure do now!