Overturning a century-old precedent

[steele_the_wolf]

Supreme Court Rolls Back Campaign Finance Restrictions

By a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court on Thursday rolled back restrictions on corporate spending on federal campaigns. The decision could unleash a torrent of corporate-funded attack ads in upcoming elections.

"Because speech is an essential mechanism of democracy -- it is the means to hold

Comments

[schnee]

Yeah, pretty idiotic. Where does the notion that companies - legal persons - must be entitled to ALL the rights of natural persons come from, anyway?

[equusfur]

It comes from a Scotus decision in the late 19th century. The actual decision said no such thing but one of the court pages responsible for putting more or less the cliff notes version of it at the front wrote that in. A later Scotus decision referenced it and it became the reality.

So basically big corp = immortal human with large stores of money to give away at will that cannot be held liable for it's crimes.

[schnee]

*noddles* Ah, I see. :/

[kazoo_dog]

I would absolutely love to be screwed over by NBC if it meant a $33 million pay off. I think this whole fiasco is only going to end up helping Conan more than anything. Even if his TV career doesn't seem to recover (which I highly doubt, he's way too talented to remain on late night TV), he will never need to work again!

[wolfjlupus]

Just what we need, MORE corporate influence, not less... *rolls eyes*