Saturday, June 23, 2012

Latest decision makes it clear that the Supreme Court has an agenda to elect Republican candidates

The Supreme Court two years ago issued the Citizens United decision, allowing both corporations and unions to spend unlimited sums of money in U.S. elections.

To a degree this was a balanced decision because while corporate spending on elections is much higher than union spending, it is also true that corporations heavily support Republican candidates while unions heavily support Democratic candidates in terms of their political donations.

This week however, the same Supreme Court ruled that unions must get an 'opt-in' from members before making political donations while corporations do not need any permission from shareholders.

If it wasn't clear before (think stopping the Florida recount in 2000,) it is now: the Supreme Court is not an independent branch of government. Whether because the majority of the court is in fact made up of Republicans, and/or because several judges are now in their seventies and may be considering who will replace them, the high court has a cynical political agenda to elect Republican candidates. Let's be perfectly clear about that.

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