Massive Opportunity For Reform May Turn Into Devastating Setback at Erratic Supreme Court as Decision in Two Weeks

Democracy, elections, and voting

As the Supreme Court appears to hear another case giving it the opportunity to rule on campaign finance, many have been hoping that they would take the chance to reverse Citizens United decision that has led to the current system of unprecedented legal corruption.  However, it now seems that there is an equal chance that the wise Supreme Court, the only unelected branch of government, might take the chance to make things worse.  Is is possible they will actually take action to encourage the cancer of big money in our political system to grow?   As always Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog has the latest scoop. His full post titled “Are Liberals Shooting Themselves in the Foot with Citizens United Sequel from Montana?” can be read here, but take a look at this excerpt:

The fight now is between option 2 (which will almost certainly lead to a reversal of the Montana Supreme Court after briefing and oral arguments with some dissents) and option 3 (which will almost certainly lead to a reversal of the Montana Supreme Court without further argument with some dissents)

What this calculation doesn’t include is the possibility that the Court could actually make things worse if this goes to a full hearing and there is a majority opinion.  (And believe me, it could get even worse, such as having the Court express doubts about the constitutionality of contribution limits applied to corporations or in other ways).

For good measure, here is the description of kleptocracy, or literally ‘rule by thieves’, from Wikipedia:

Kleptocracy, (from Greek “rule by thieves”) is a form of political and government corruption where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often without pretense of honest service. This type of government corruption is often achieved by the embezzlement of state funds.