Kaufman: Citizens United Ruling a “Blunderbuss”
Delaware Senator decries pro-business judicial activism
March 10, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC – At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday on “Corporate Spending in American Elections after Citizens United,” Senator Ted Kaufman (D-DE) said nothing has caused him more concern recently than the Jan. 21, 2010 Supreme Court ruling that brushed aside more than 100 years of statutory authority and case law and struck down the McCain-Feingold prohibition against corporate expenditures for electioneering communications.
Kaufman, expressing frustration with a needlessly broad ruling with far-reaching implications, described the decision as a “blunderbuss.” Referring to skyrocketing campaign expenditures, Kaufman said, “I hate to think what the numbers would have been like in the last couple of elections without McCain-Feingold.”
Kaufman went on to criticize those who “know a lot about the law [but] know nothing about campaign financing and refuse to lean on Congress and what Congress understands of the facts” on this issue. “This is about very big business and very big money,” he continued.
Hearing witnesses included Jeffrey Rosen, George Washington University Law School professor, Doug Kendall, Founder and President of the Constitutional Accountability Center and Bradley A. Smith, Chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics.
In response to Kaufman’s question on whether Citizens United could be seen as an “activist” decision, Rosen responded, “this decision is activist by any definition of activism.”
In closing, Kaufman asked the witnesses to discuss what he considers the increasingly “pro-business bent” of the current Supreme Court. Both Rosen and Kendall agreed with this notion, as well as the very real prospect that financial regulatory reforms – expected to be passed by Congress this year – may be undermined as a result of the current Court’s philosophy.
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