In a country where money already terribly skews our political system, the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling on campaign finance comes as very unwelcome news. The NYT editorial states it well:
With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century. Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court’s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.
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As a result of Thursday’s ruling, corporations have been unleashed from the longstanding ban against their spending directly on political campaigns and will be free to spend as much money as they want to elect and defeat candidates. If a member of Congress tries to stand up to a wealthy special interest, its lobbyists can credibly threaten: We’ll spend whatever it takes to defeat you.
As long as the right-wing can equate spending money with free speech, and it has a receptive audience in the courts, our democracy is going to be ill served indeed.