Domestic Perspective: Supreme Court’s worst ruling ever?

BY TRAVIS FICK
Managing Editor

On Jan. 21, the United States Supreme Court overturned a 63-year-old campaign finance law that limited big business and big labor’s influence in elections and legislation.

In a 5-4 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts was joined by justices Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas by invoking the First Amendment’s free speech protections. “The government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether,” wrote Kennedy, the author of the majority opinion.

The court’s decision personifies big business and big labor and now gives them the same protections as everyday Americans. The five justices took advantage of the ambiguity of the FirstAmendment and instead participated in judicial activism to seek favor from those who believe that special interests should rule our political process. Lawrence M. Noble, the attorney arguing in favor of the law, told the Washington Post that lobbyists can now walk up to a member of congress and say, “We have got a million we can spend advertising for you or against you — whichever one you want.”

The court’s decision to view money as a form of political speech opens the door to a world where big business and big labor can and will dominate and increase their political influence simply because they possess a large amount of money. All because five individuals decided to side with wealthy corporations and labor unions, the everyday American’s influence in the political system will soon be irrelevant. Instead of candidates seeking smaller donations from individual Americans, they may now turn to special interest groups such as the Chamber of Commerce or the AFLCIO to raise money toward their re-elections, making smaller individual donations obsolete.

Once again, we see the federal government siding with those who have money instead of everyday Americans, and it is disgusting. When Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck hear about the government bailing out the banking industry while providing little to no help to middle and lower class Americans, we get mad. When the Supreme Court opens the door for the banks that owe the American people credit for their very existence, we get furious.

President Barack Obama issued a statement that fit the attitude of economic populists. The president criticized the court’s decision and called the ruling a “major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

I support the message of other economic populists who recognize that the needs of everyday Americans are more important than the needs of big business or labor. This decision does exactly opposite and only increases the power of special interest money, lobbyists, corporations and labor unions. This dastardly and regressive ruling by the court is a step in the wrong direction. Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives should stand together to fight this decision and ensure that the issues that matter most to hardworking, everyday Americans are elected officials’ top priority. I wonder when the Supreme Court will give big business and big labor a vote? The bottom line is that the American people lost on Jan. 21, and we lost big.