Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Trevor Potter on Citizen’s United

Trevor Potter offers a thorough treatment (for an article sized piece) of the Citizen’s United decision by the US Supreme Court in a speech at an Annual Meeting of the American Law Institute. The link is to the transcript via Alternet. …coverage is so successful because it accurately describes a campaign finance world that seems too […]

Supreme Court faces pressure to reconsider Citizens United

Lifted from an e-mail by Beverly Mann in response to an inquiry of mine on a Washington Post article: Hi Dan. The key paragraphs in a Washington Post article earlier this week, called Supreme Court faces pressure to reconsider Citizens United ruling say: The Supreme Court has already blocked the Montana decision, and the justices […]

The Supreme Court’s corporate monsters–if money buys them "free speech" rights, can it help them avoid giving others human rights?

by Linda Beale The Supreme Court’s corporate monsters–if money buys them “free speech” rights, can it help them avoid giving others human rights? The Supreme Court decided in Citizens United that corporations could intevene to influence elections–giving money and aide to their selected candidates. This was an inordinate broadening of corporate “personhood”, claimed to be […]

Super pacs disclosures

OMB Watch notes some figures on Super Pac spending: Outside groups are spending nearly 1,300 percent more on broadcast advertising for the 2012 election than they did in 2008, according to an analysis released on Jan. 30. This is the clearest demonstration yet that Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has fundamentally rewritten the rules […]

Corporate Leveraging of Campaign Contributions Under Citizens United

Last week, Dan posted what had been an email message I sent him in response to a link he’d sent me to an article by Thom Hartmann on Truthout about the Supreme Court’s infamous Citizens United opinion.  The key (consecutive) paragraphs of Hartmann’s piece, which I quoted in my email/post, were: Most Americans don’t realize […]

The Beginning of the End of Citizens United?

 I sent a link to Beverly to this article which stated Citizen United was not so much about corporate personhood. Here is her response, and in addition in a later e-mail Beverly makes this key point (intro amended for readability): …that no constitutional amendment is necessary in order to nullify Citizens United, because Citizens United actually was […]

We trust that AT&T will not take it personally

Part of an e-mail from Beverly Mann on additional expansion of corporate personhood concept at the Supreme Court: I agree that, as the article at Raw Story says, the decision is a striking contrast to the court’s ruling in Citizens United, which upended decades of campaign finance regulation, allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts on […]

The Supremes did us a favor with Citizens United regarding Rand Paul et al

By Daniel Becker Ok, if you have not heard, Mr Rand Paul made quite the impression during an interview with Rachel Maddow. The short of it: businesses should be free to discriminate as they see fit. It’s their right, though he’s not for discrimination. You know, citizens and all having equal rights. Well, there is […]

Responding to Glenn Greenwald’s: What the Supreme Court Got Right

by Divorced one like Bush For this post I will formally introduce myself. I am Daniel J. Becker. It is only proper and just to do so. I am using Mr. Greenwalds discussion only as a platform to add my thoughts regarding the Citizens United decision.  Also this is a long read. So I’ll give you […]