Supreme Court Once Again Sides With Wealthy Special Interests
Washington, D.C.—Today’s decision in American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock is just another example of the Supreme Court siding with wealthy interests and against common sense and everyday people, said campaign finance watchdog Public Campaign. In its decision, the Court overturned Montana’s law banning direct corporate expenditures in elections.
“A day after Mitt Romney and his big donors held a private retreat with the leaders of so-called ‘independent’ outside groups, the Court’s flawed logic that outside money can’t corrupt is on full display with today’s decision,” said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign.
“The voices of everyday Americans are being drowned out by the country’s wealthiest Americans who are making our elections a parlor game for billionaires,” said Nyhart. “This is the most recent decision in a line of rulings that will surely place the Court on the wrong side of history.”
Earlier this year, the Montana Supreme Court upheld the state’s century-old Corrupt Practices Act that banned direct expenditures in elections for state offices. In the Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, justices argued that because outside expenditures were independent, they could not be corrupting. Montana’s Attorney General, and the Montana Supreme Court, disagreed citing the state’s own history of corruption.
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Public Campaign is a national nonpartisan organization that fights to raise the voices of everyday people in our democracy through changing our campaign finance laws and through holding elected.