erieangel
Posts: 2237
Joined: 6/19/2011 Status: offline
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http://www.alternet.org/rss/breakingnews/938037/justice_stevens%3A_citizens_united_ruling_will_fall_apart/?akid=8881.286161.yxEGSd&rd=1&t=15 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/justice-john-paul-stevens-citizens-united-fall-apart.php Two and a half years after the landmark Supreme Court ruling that invited a flood of corporate money in U.S. elections, the justice who led the barnstorming dissent says he's increasingly convinced the decision won't stand the test of time. In a speech at the University of Arkansas, retired Justice John Paul Stevens argued that events since the decision "provide a basis to expect that the Court already has had second thoughts about the breadth of the reasoning" and will likely return to its 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. FEC. Stevens noted that Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion did not explicitly address the possibility that the decision could open up the floodgates for foreign entities to bankroll U.S. elections. It's a notion that President Obama warned of in his 2010 State of the Union, prompting Justice Samuel Alito to famously shake his head and mouth "not true." When the justices carve out that exception, argued Stevens, they will "create a crack in the foundation of the Citizens United majority opinion." "[T]he Court must then explain its abandonment of, or at least qualify its reliance upon, proposition that the identity of the speaker is an impermissible basis for regulating campaign speech," Stevens said Wednesday night. This will be interesting to watch.
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