Going rogue, five Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices shredded a century of campaign-law precedent on January 21. The justices decided to unleash unlimited corporate political expenditures for the Grand Old Party, which had lost its grip on Congress, the White House, and federal judicial appointments. The court's majority in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission invited corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money to elect and defeat candidates of their choosing. Only in their fantasies can unions give the corporate suits a run for their money.

Campaign finance law, in fact, was initially a response to corporate domination of elections in the early days of the robber barons. In 1896, Republican presidential candidate William McKinley used unprecedented amounts of corporate cash to defeat populist Democrat William Jennings Bryan. Eleven years later, President Teddy Roosevelt used his bully pulpit to help end the corporate hijacking of elections, supporting the landmark 1907 ban on corporate funding of federal elections—part of a body of law and legal precedents that the court swept away last month.

The ruling has alarming implications for how the United States addresses—or dodges—issues such as bank regulation, climate change, and health insurance. Every time members of Congress cast a vote, said Fred Wertheimer, president of the nonpartisan reform group Democracy 21, "they potentially face multimillion-dollar campaigns against them."

This article may be viewed completely only by logged-in Washington Spectator Subscribers

Click the 'Subscribe' link below to begin your Washington Spectator Subscription.

If you are already a Subscriber, you must log in to let us know.

Click the 'Log In' link below to take advantage of your Washington Spectator membership.