The Supreme Court will meet this Thursday 6/14/12, for a private chat about Citizens United, you know the ruling that gave corporations the same rights as people, which when you think about it is exactly what the anti-choice movement is trying to do with fetuses. I digress. The reason Citizens is back before the Supreme Court is not because corporate money has completely corrupted the democratic process, but because Montana, in direct violation of Citizens, refused to strike down a 100 year old law that bans corporate money in their state’s elections. Montana believes that corporate spending did in fact corrupt their state’s political process some 100 years ago, ergo their refusal to strike the law. The ruling was appealed and now it’s going before SCOTUS.

The Supremes can go two ways with this; they can either give us nothing but heartache, dig in, and write a summary opinion justifying the majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy…

“the Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption and the appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy.”

Uh huh. Or they can stop in the name of love, be sane, and decide to hear the case and reconsider the 2010 ruling. There’s a glimmer of hope here. In February 2012, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking for herself and Stephen Breyer, two of the dissenting minority on Citizens, said the following…

“Montana’s experience, and experience elsewhere since this Court’s decision in Citizens United, … make it exceedingly difficult to maintain that independent expenditures by corporations ‘do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.’ A petition [to hear the case] will give the Court an opportunity to consider whether, in light of the huge sums currently deployed to buy candidates’ allegiance, Citizens United should continue to hold sway.” 

The real question is given the overwhelming evidence that corporate monies and super pacs are and have completely corrupted our electoral process, will Judges Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas have the integrity to recognize their mistake.

Let’s help them.

Here’s the email for the Supreme Court…

http://www.supremecourt.gov/contact/contact_webmaster.aspx

Here’s the phone number for the Public Information Office for time sensitive or urgent questions: 202 -479-3211

Here’s the general information number: 202-479-3000

Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools. Katherine Manaan (MAWT)

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