Supreme Court Campaign Finance Case

Bryan Fettig ’14

Staff Writer

The Supreme Court is nearing a decision on a campaign contributions case which will either lift limits on financial contributions or keep even possibly reverse citizens united (very unlikely outcome, but possible). Citizens United said that corporations are people and can donate money to campaigns. This usually would influence this vote but Chief Justice Roberts, the swing vote that upheld the Affordable Care Act last summer, said he is weary of unlimited financial representation by one or multiple people. Four conservatives on the court will likely vote in favor of lifting them while the four liberals will likely vote to keep them.

Conservatives have a misguided notion that money is speech. In reality, corporations are not people and money is not speec.h The founders did not include that in the first amendment, they did however include free speech for the people. Campaign Contribution limits benefit everyone because it makes it so volunteerism and being active in the election process means something. Without the limits, a couple billionaires could adopt congressional campaigns and bank roll a candidate to office much like superpacs already do. This would not benefit either party in reality because it would allow  extremists like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul to not only have a chance in the bible belt but potentially in the mid west.

If the Campaign Contribution case is struck down, main stream Americans will not have the representation in campaigns and potentially people like the Koch Brothers will be able to bank roll a candidate into office.