Posted by Guamo at 12:11am Jan 22 '10The supreme court ruled today that limiting campaign contributions from corporations violated the first amendment protection of free speech. Now this pisses me off in so many ways. First, campaign finance has always been a sore point with me. Basically, I think most of our corrupt political system can be traced to the fact that politicians can basically be bought by large corporations/lobbying groups. So to allow them to spend even more money will only drown out the voices of the individual even more. Second, the idea that the rights of individuals should be extended to giant corporations and businesses is ludicrous. Lastly, liberal judges are always being accused of being activist judges, or legislating from the bench. However, this vote was straight down ideological lines, 5 conservative votes in the majority, 4 liberal votes in the minority. And is about the most blatant example of activist judging I can think of. They overturned not only a congressionally passed law, but also 2 judicial precedents, one of which was not even being challenged by the plaintiff. How is this not legislating from the bench?
/rant
sorry, this maybe should have been on the rants thread, but it is political, and I do always like to hear what other's think. So... what do you think about this?
/rant
sorry, this maybe should have been on the rants thread, but it is political, and I do always like to hear what other's think. So... what do you think about this?
added on 12:21am Jan 22 '10:
oh, actually, this ruling was yesterday. Didn't realize I posted past midnight (east coast time, 11 here in wisconsin)