The Citizens United ruling, coming after many previous judicial assaults on campaign finance rules and regulations, was a disaster for democracy. But it left in place at least some constraints on the campaign donors. Key among these was a limitation on the ability of a wealthy individual to donate more than a total dollar amount of $123,000 total in each two-year election cycle to political candidates and parties.
With the ruling in the McCutcheon case—where the court was actively encouraged to intervene on behalf of big-money politics by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky—a 5-4 court majority (signing on to various opinions) has ruled that caps on the total amount of money an individual donor can give to political candidates, parties and political action committees are unconstitutional.
The think-tank Demos says the high court’s ruling has “overturned nearly forty years of campaign finance law,” which is certainly true. But it does much more than that. By going to the next extreme when it comes to questions of money in politics, the court has opted for full-on plutocracy—and it is unimaginable that the five justices who make up the court majority on these issues will stop here.
Continue reading: http://www.thenation.com/blog/179132/mccutcheon-ruling-activist-court-opts-full-plutocracy
Further reading: The Supreme Court’s Ideology – More Money, Less Voting
Watch this video: McCutcheon – Unlimited Bribery, Unlimited Corruption
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First Citizens United. Now this.
The Secular Jurist 