Citizens United

It has been my view for some time that the vast wash of money in Washington D.C. has been a corrupting influence on our politics, but that the only way to really deal with this is through a Constitutional amendment because incumbents gain an advantage over potential competitors by keeping things the way they are. And as my Contituional law professor, Ed Firmage, persuasively argued, the time when Congress really addressed this issue effectively was post-Watergate, which the Supreme Court emasculated in Buckley v. Valeo. The recent Supreme Court case would appear to be a revisitation of the conflict between an interpretation of the Constitution by those who lack experience in politics vs. a more realistic perspective.

It is time I revisited some of these issues because they are complicated. Here is a interesting article by noted Constitutional scholar Lawrence Tribe on Scotusblog. And here is thoughtful article from the website Balkinization.

For a view from the apocalyptic left, here is Chris Hedges. And for the right, all I was able to come up with is this blog from the National Review. It is interesting that the right has now adopted an ACLU position. Anyway, the issue deserves some thought. One starting point is whether McCain-Feingold has really done any good.