Supreme Court Ruling a Blow to Democracy

In the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission overturned federal law prohibiting corporations, unions and other special interest groups from electioneering by protecting a corporation’s freedom of speech. The majority opinion states that “We find no basis for the proposition that, in the context of political speech, the Government may impose restric-tions on certain disfavored speakers. Both history andlogic lead us to this conclusion” (p. 25).

The mistake of the majority opinion, which the dissenting opinion so elegantly states, is that it is a mistake to afford the rights of citizens, such as freedom of speech, to large, powerful and organized interests, whatever they may be:

“In the context of election to public office, the distinctionbetween corporate and human speakers is significant.Although they make enormous contributions to our society, corporations are not actually members of it. They cannot vote or run for office. Because they may be managed and controlled by nonresidents, their interests mayconflict in fundamental respects with the interests ofeligible voters. The financial resources, legal structure,and instrumental orientation of corporations raise legitimate concerns about their role in the electoral process. Our lawmakers have a compelling constitutional basis, if not also a democratic duty, to take measures designed to guard against the potentially deleterious effects of corporate spending in local and national races” (p. 2)

I agree with the dissent: it is a huge mistake to believe that the private American individual is on the same playing field with corporations with regard to influencing elections. Granting corporations the same privileges and rights as an American citizen grossly misjudges the powers and abilities of corporations.

Now, more than ever, we should be curtailing the hold of the special interests on our daily lives. Seriously, we work at corporations, we get our news from big corporate news providers, our media space is dominated by information provided by special interests, and sensitive security-related industries have unionized. Even our food production and healthcare are run by special interests. And to top off all this off, they now have the freedoms of expression afforded the individual American citizen. Let’s be honest, I don’t have a billion dollar budget, thousands of people on my payroll, lobbyists in Washington, D.C. and access to the influence of millions of Americans. The American people will never be on the same playing field as these groups and this is one more protection against them that has been taken away.

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