SLUH Progressive 1.3

Page 1

SLUH

The voice of the student left at St. Louis U. High

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Volume 1, Issue 3

Elections on the auction block

Supreme Court allows free corporate spending in campaigns Joe Klein nonprofit organizations from sponsoring an appeal to vote for or against a specific advertisements that directly target a candidate” that were prohibited by McCainEditor political candidate during a time frame of Feingold—meaning that Hillary’s purpose

The floodgates have been opened. On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued its decision in the case Citizens United v. FEC, ruling in favor of the group Citizens United, who had filed suit over whether they could broadcast their politicallycharged documentary within sixty days of an election. While that consequence alone may appear trivial and insignificant, the repercussions of the decision are more grave. Simply put, this ruling will adversely influence the way elections are conducted for time to come, reducing the already sub-standard influence we citizens hold over them, while simultaneously allowing wealthy corporations and special interests to monopolize the election process. To begin, some background: the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act—more commonly known as McCain-Feingold, for its co-sponsors in the Senate—was passed by a relatively wide margin in 2002, and, in addition to mandating the now-common declaration of “I’m [candidate] and I approve this message,” prohibited corporations, unions, and

60 days before an election takes place. Opponents of this law sought to get it overturned, and, in 2003, they came extremely close, obtaining a Supreme Court hearing on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment. That failed, however, and the Court rightly declared corporate money was not subject to the First Amendment rights of human citizens. This case was predicted to be treated as a precedent, which would influence the outcome of similar decisions in the future, and the matter was put to rest. However, the Supreme Court bucked tradition, far from “calling balls and strikes,” as John Roberts summarized his role during confirmation hearings, and overturned the precedent relatively quickly. During the 2008 primaries, Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit, developed a documentary entitled Hillary: The Movie, which they planned to air immediately before the Democratic primaries. Hillary was declared to fall under the umbrella of “electioneering communications,” or communications susceptible to no reasonable interpretation other than as

was simply to discredit then-Senator Hillary Clinton and urge voters to vote against her. Therefore, it was prohibited from being shown. Although some might argue that this ruling represents nothing new, since corporate contributions are not banned outside of that 60-day period, I point them in the direction of the 1988 election that placed George Bush against Michael Dukakis. A political action committee released an advertisement linking Dukakis with Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who murdered again during a furlough from prison. This advertisement played a direct role in Dukakis’ defeat. That ad premiered in late September 1988, and thus would have been illegal for airing under McCain-Feingold. The content, origin, and wording of this ad are irrelevant. What matter, however, are the aftershocks one advertisement can have in the days leading up to an election. If this ruling is allowed to stand, many more of these Willie Hortonesque advertisements will be seen, with greater intensity, financed by corporations’

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Write for the SLUH Progressive The Progressive is a bi-weekly, issues-based opinion journal that strives to be the voice of the student left. If you have progressive opinions or liberal leanings, we want you to write for us! Contact the editors, seniors Jack Newsham (M114) or Ben Minden-Birkenmaier (M114), or sophomore Joe Klein (M209), in person or at progressive@sluh.org. Questions? Comments? Clarifications? Disputes? We look forward to hearing from you!


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