Litigation

Obama Hammers ?Citizens United?

By Peter Hardin

President Obama has more to say about the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, and how it has affected American politics.

?Right now, all across the country, special interests are planning and running millions of dollars of attack ads against Democratic candidates,? the president said at a fundraiser in Connecticut, according to a New York Times article. He blamed the Citizens United decision.

?They want to take Congress back and return to the days where lobbyists wrote the laws,? he added. ?It is the most insidious power grab since the monopolies of the Gilded Age. That?s happening right now. So there?s a lot of talk about populist anger and grassroots. But that?s not what?s driving a lot of these elections.?

His cutting remarks about campaign finance were part of a “closing argument” that Obama is readying for the final two-month push before November’s midterm elections, Democrats told The Hill.

In a NPR report, Peter Overby explored why “Campaign Cash Surges from Undisclosed Donors” in this election cycle. Not only has political spending risen overall, in part due to Citizens United, NPR reported,  but revised rules from the Federal Election Commission have “dramatically undercut the rules on disclosure.”

The landmark Supreme Court ruling lifted key restraints to allow unlimited political spending by corporations and labor unions. To learn more about Citizens United, read the Justice at Stake amicus brief in the case or the JAS news release commenting on the high court?s decision. You can also read in Gavel Grab a series of posts about developments tied to Citizens United.

Full post as published by The Gavel on September 17, 2010 (boomark / email).