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Corporations and special interest groups gained some power with a Supreme Court ruling loosening federal campaign law

Why not just have an auction? Put the name of the contested political office up on a blackboard, station someone nearby with a piece of chalk, and have him keep track of bids from special interest groups, $10 million per slash.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, we have here a United States Senate seat. Votes on all major issues of the day, including health care and insurance regulation. What am I bid? Yes? OK, we have $25 million from Acme Insurance International…"

In one of the most people-unfriendly rulings of recent times, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued a narrow majority opinion that will reopen the opportunity for corporations and unions and other special interest groups to invest huge amounts from their treasuries in "issue advertising" ultimately aimed at beating a specific candidate.

The effect is to loosen restrictions on such ads — which often appear in the waning days of a campaign and focus on a particularly sensitive issue, such as abortion rights, and just happen to remind voters of a particular candidate’s stance on such as issue. The ads have been in almost all cases negative. And they have been heavily funded by special interests that send the money through some advocacy group — without having to comply with rules on contribution limits or disclosure of the contributors’ identity.

Attempting to rein in this abuse, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act prohibited the use of a federal candidate’s name in such ads 30 days before a primary election and 90 days before a general election. And a previous Supreme Court, in 2003, upheld the law as constitutional. So Chief Justice John Roberts has effectively thumbed his nose at precedent. (more…)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 4:45 am and is filed under Daily News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.