Supreme Court Kneecaps Campaign Finance Reform

In today's landmark reversal of a major part of the 2002 campaign-finance reform law, the Supreme Court said it was striking a blow for freedom of speech and First Amendment rights. But let's get more specific here. What the justices were actually talking about was the free-speech right of corporations to "engage in public debate" -- which, as it turns out, happens to be a serious blow for the rest of the actually sentient and voting public.

In its collective chin-stroke of a decision, the 5-4 majority ruled that corporations and unions can now start to dip into their annual revenue to help bankroll campaigns. (Well, that's a century of precedent neatly binned, as well as Justice Robert's fondly nursed claims of 'judicial modesty.') As Sen. Feingold notes, in effect, the court's decision "effectively strikes down laws in over 20 states, and the federal law that has been the cornerstone of the nation's campaign-finance system for 100 years."

As Dahlia Lithwick puts it, today's ruling marks a kind of "Frankenstein moment," one in which the court has somehow managed to transmogrify corporate speech into something more urgent than the voices of voters, the "we" of "We the People," which will be drowned out.

For reformers on both sides of the aisle -- who trace a long and healthy lineage all the way back President Roosevelt's 1907 crusade for a publicly financed election system -- the day marks a kind of Black Thursday.

So far, President Obama issued a statement calling on Congress to “develop a forceful response to this decision.” Sen. Schumer has likewise called for hearings on the ruling.

That's a start, but they need your loud support to take up and carry that call. You can start by backing Change.org user Joseph Cardwell, who's launched an action to support Representative Grayson in fighting this latest ruling:

Or check out Move to Amend's petition, which has already garnered some 4,000 signatures, including people from Bill Moyers to Bill McKibben.

This is hardly the first blow to be struck against a fairer campaign finance system, and it won't be the last. But the most important thing, right now, is to keep on fighting.

Photo Credit: saturnine