Citizens United decided: corps can give

Citizens United decision was released today. From National Journal:

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?

Will the Election Reform Bill be killed by the SCOTUS?

Just a few weeks ago the General Assembly passed a ground-breaking (well, for Illinois) new election reform bill which, in part, brings a cap on campaign contributions for the first time. But will this provision of the bill be ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court before it ever goes into effect?

The Supreme Court is set to rule on the constitutionality of limiting corporate campaign donations in Citizens United v. FEC. We will have to wait and see how far the Supreme Court will go in answering the yet unanswered question of the constitutionality of limiting campaign contributions. From USA Today:

If the Supreme Court opens the door to more corporate money in political campaigns, it could affect laws in nearly two dozen states and a host of governor's races next year, including high-profile contests in Texas and Connecticut, experts say.

...

"The Supreme Court decision has the potential to open the floodgates," said Paul Ryan, of the non-profit Campaign Legal Center, which supports campaign-finance restrictions.

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State laws vary widely. They range from jurisdictions such as Virginia, Missouri and Illinois, which impose no restrictions, to Oklahoma where unions and companies cannot donate directly to candidates. In Virginia, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $972,877 to aid McDonnell — more than any other business group in this year's race for governor, according to data compiled by the non-partisan Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks campaign money.