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Will the Supreme Court?s Citizens United Decision Declaw our State AG?s?

By Andy Hoffman

Right now, there probably no way to adequately describe the horror that the U.S. Supreme Court just rained down on this country with its decision yesterday in Citizens United v. FEC.  As the New York Times put it today,  ?With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century.  Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court?s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.? 

Yes, Congress must fix this somehow, but it?s also good to know that there are state Attorneys General out there who are trying to stop fundraising corruption and see this as part of their job.  Like NY?s AG Andrew Cuomo, who filed a lawsuit Wednesday against four New York ?fundraising? companies to ?shut them down for lying manipulating, and deceiving to get charitable donations.?

The suit is the result of a six-month sting operation in which law enforcement officials obtained jobs with the companies, and found their telemarketers:

   
  * Used aliases and illegally failed to disclose they were paid fund-raisers.

  * Changed the names of charities to sound similar to well-known charities or causes.

  * Lied about the programs client charities actually provided.

  * Filed false annual documents with the state attorney general's office containing fake scripts that were made to seem like the ones used by their telemarketers.

Consumer friendly state AG?s have already had a big target on their back for protecting the public from all sorts of corporate misbehavior.  The terrifying impact of Citizens United on state AG races can only be imagined.  Brace yourselves.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on January 22, 2010 (boomark / email).