11-08-2009, 04:49 PM
RgrF wrote:
Try for a moment to imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if any serious movement developed to remove these legislated "rights".
Just to be clear, I don't consider Supreme Court rulings to be "legislated rights". "Legislated" implies that the right was passed through a legislature rather than it being based on Supreme Court rulings about who qualifies for Constitutionally guaranteed rights. But I definitely share your concern. As the Harvard Law link I provided says:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/200...ate-power/
5. Overrule Bellotti!
Now that 30 years have passed since Justice Powell took a prefatory comment in a 19th Century railroad case and used it to enfranchise corporations in the political process, events have shown that it is Belotti, not the cases that tried to limit its mischief, which should be up for reconsideration. The incredible growth of corporate presence in all forms of political activity has indeed brought about the corruption of the political process that Justice Powell acknowledged might occur if corporate enterprises were allowed to employ their resources to influence the election of candidates. The “problem of corruption of elected representatives through the creation of political debts” has become the American political reality in the 21st Century. Why not put Bellotti on the table for reconsideration when the Court convenes on September 9?
Emboldened by Bellotti, corporations have indeed taken the program of the Powell Memorandum to heart. The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has increased from 3,400 in 1977 to almost 34,000 in 2006. In the 2008 House and Senate races $400 million dollars was raised and spent for candidates by political action committees, mostly linked to business corporations. Corporate spending for such events as the Inauguration, Party Conventions and even Presidential Debates has become embarrassingly blatant.