Obama praises congressional efforts to limit Supreme Court finance ruling
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President Obama on Thursday praised congressional efforts to mitigate a Supreme Court ruling that politicians feared increased the ability of corporation and unions to influence elections.
“Powerful special interests and their lobbyists should not be able to drown out the voices of the American people,” Obama said in his statement. “Yet they work ceaselessly toward that goal: They claim the protection of the Constitution in extending this power, and they exploit every loophole in the law to escape limits on their activities.”
By 5-4 in the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court in January ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations. Supporters hailed the decision as defending 1st Amendment rights to political speech, while opponents argued that big money would skew the political process.
Obama, in his State of the Union address, criticized the ruling, which he said “reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.”
In an embarrassing aside, Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. during the State of the Union was caught on tape in a rare partisan moment, responding to the president’s sharp attack by mouthing “not true.”
Democrats have promised some form of legislation to limit the effect of the ruling and on Thursday delivered a bill.
“At a time when the public’s fears about the influence of special interests were already high, this decision stacks the deck against the average American even more,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told a news conference on the steps of the Supreme Court building.
The bill would bar spending from foreign sources and from any company receiving bailout money. Corporations and unions would have to identify themselves in ads, a move to make their role more transparent. They also would have to disclose the spending to shareholders and members.
“The legislation introduced today would establish the toughest-ever disclosure requirements for election-related spending by big oil corporations, Wall Street and other special interests, so the American people can follow the money and see clearly which special interests are funding political campaign activity and trying to buy representation in our government,” Obama stated.
Schumer said Democrats were talking to GOP lawmakers, and “a good number” were favorably disposed to the bill.
-- Michael Muskal
