The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down some key provisions of landmark campaign finance legislation in a move experts agree paves the way for more corporate money to enter the political system.
In a 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the Court's majority threw out sections of the legislation that bans corporations and labor unions from funding some political advertisements. Corporations and unions may fund those communications out of their general treasuries, overturning earlier rulings that had divided individual and corporate expenditures into different categories.
You can read the entire opinion here. The very cliffed cliff notes:
(1) Corporations can spend freely on political causes.
(2) Any corporation that spends more then $10,000 must file a disclosure with the FEC.
(3) Any political ad by a corporation must include the standard disclaimer of who is paying for the ad.
So what are the long term/short term implications of this groundbreaking ruling?
Long-term implications: business as usual.
ReplyDelete