For decades, the answer to that question has been a firm “no.” As far back as 1907, Congress has passed legislation banning corporations and national banks from contributing money to federal campaigns. In fact, in 1947 legislation was passed that also banned independent campaign expenditures by both corporations and unions. Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce upheld that ban in 1990, and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 went even further in its regulation of campaign donations.
But just a week ago, the Supreme Court made a decision that might change the answer to our question forever. The high court postponed a narrow ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and instead ordered a second argument, setting the stage to broadly re-examine whether corporate campaign expenditures may be restricted at all.
In the case, the conservative group Citizens United asked the court to reject restrictions in the BCRA that would have forced a disclosure of who paid for “Hillary: The Movie,” a film critical of the then-presidential candidate. But the court appears poised to go much further.
Instead of making a decision on the case at hand, the court ordered a second argument for September 9. In doing so, the Court now has asked whether it should overrule two of its landmark campaign finance rulings, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, both of which held that corporations can be prohibited from spending their own cash in direct support of or opposition to political candidates.
It seems as though the entire decades-long effort to keep corporate (and union) money from dominating our political campaigns is to be unceremoniously scrapped. A decision to overrule Austin and McConnell would transform our elections into free-for-alls with massive corporate and union spending flooding the airwaves and officeholders beholden to the deep pockets that promoted their candidacies.
And we’re not the only ones who think so. Richard L. Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School, was quoted by the National Journal, saying that if the court reverses itself,
it’s going to undo much of what Congress has done over the last at least 40 years in trying to make sure that the vast economic inequalities in this country are not translated into political inequality.
Even now, American corporations are attempting to influence health care legislation and financial reform. Allowing them outright power over our democratic elections would be devastating. Do you want your next senator to be chosen by big businesses or the people? Stay tuned for more action, as this battle has only begun.
Corporations already ARE deciding who gets elected to office. Whether it’s done by campaign donations, PACS and 527’s running smear ads, or illegal uner the table methods, corporate America has tremendous influence over govt.
I don’t think we’ll see truthful reporting of the many instances of fraud and deceit by corporations unless or until the umbilical cord is cut between corporate cash, and govt, as well as the media. The media most people rely on for news and information is notoriously protective of its corporate owners and advertisers. E.g., the housing bubble; there were many early warnings that rampant mortgage fraud and and an artificially created bubble were going to destroy the economy. But most of the public only knew what real estate shills told them on TV news and ads. If anyone doubts that early warnings were only coming from bloggers, consider this: the FBI warned between 2004 and 2006 that 80% of the rampant mortgage fraud was done by the industry, and the agency said it could severely damage the economy if it was not stopped. The amount of money the agency asked for to combat it was peanuts compared to the $750 billion in bailout money already wasted on crooked CEOs in summer of 2008.
Legal industry lobbying and campaign donations helped set up this meltdown so a few at the top could make billions. These industries already control this country and it has to stop. The question is, how do you make corporate donations of any kind illegal now that it is allowed?
One only has to search sites like followthemoney.org or opensecrets.org to see the millions of legal donations corporate entities make to candidates, if not directly then thru their many PACs and 527 org’s. And then there’s the smear ads these org’s run which are usually full of lies. Making this illegal and making jail time mandatory for violations is about all that I think might end corporate running of America for it’s own greedy purposes. I agree that stopping it from getting even worse is necessary now, but ultimately this is one baby that has to get thrown out w/the bathwater because it is Rosemary’s Baby.