Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Supreme Court and Campaign Finance

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Can someone explain to me how, with the relaxation of the campaign finance rules, you can prevent some major international corporation from influencing elections? Let’s say Siemens, for instance, would like a certain person elected. Couldn’t they just flood the campaign with money through one of their US affiliates?  

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  1. As I read the decision, the Supreme Court did not overturn the ban on direct corporate contributions to campaigns.  The decision overturned the limitations on independent expenditures (e.g. making a movie about a candidate) as long as those expenditures were not coordinated with a campaign. Corporations are still not allowed to make direct contributions.

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    p>The question of money coming from a foreign source was not before the Court.  However, the Court made this comment:

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    We need not reach the question whether the Government has a compelling interest in preventing foreign individuals or associations from influencing our Nation’s political process. Cf. 2 U. S. C. §441e (contribution and expenditure ban applied to “foreign national[s]”). Section 441b [the law challenged by Citizen’s United] is not limited to corporations or associations that were created in foreign countries or funded predominantly by foreign shareholders. Section 441b therefore would be overbroad even if we assumed, arguendo, that the Government has a compelling interest in limiting foreign influence over our political process.

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    p>I read this to mean that there is still a valid law on the books that would bar a foreign company from making independent expenditures to influence a U.S. election.

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    p>Does anyone read it differently?  

    • In his dissent in Citizens United, Justice John Paul Stevens cautioned that the decision “would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans.”

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      p>If the right-wing knew that Hugo Chavez via Citgo could run attack ads or pump money into political campaigns, their heads would explode. Welcome to the International Corporate States of America!

      •  could spend through CITGO or purchase any American corporation.
        Banana Republic here we come.

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