Supreme Court faces pressure to reconsider Citizens United ruling
3:23 pm in Campaign Finance, Citizens United, comby, contradictory arguments, federal election commission, labor unions, Legislation, members of congress, members of the supreme court, montana supreme court, ruth bader ginsburg by PinkTeaPatriot
Source: WashingtonPost.com
By: Robert Barnes
May 21st, 2012
Has anything changed in the world of campaign finance that might give pause to the five members of the Supreme Court who decided Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission exactly 28 months ago Monday?
Or, to be more precise, has anything changed in the mind of at least one of them?
The court faces that question in a flurry of contradictory arguments prompted by a decision by the Montana Supreme Court late last year.
In upholding a 100-year-old state law, the Montana justices seemed to be openly defying Citizens United’s holding that the First Amendment grants corporations, and by extension labor unions, the right to spend unlimited amounts of their treasuries to support or oppose candidates.
The Supreme Court has already blocked the Montana decision, and the justices may simply set their counterparts in Helena straight by summarily reversing the finding.
But pressure is being applied — by members of Congress and nearly half the states, not to mention Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer — to at least let Montana make its argument.
Read More: WashingtonPost.com
