Kaufman Denounces Supreme Court’s Decision in Citizens United v. F.E.C.
January 21, 2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Ted Kaufman (D-DE), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Thursday sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. F.E.C, which struck down key portions of the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, allowing corporations new and unwarranted power to influence elections.
"Despite nearly 100 years of statutes and precedent that establish the authority of Congress to limit the corrupting influence of corporate money in federal elections, the Court today ruled that corporations are absolutely free to spend shareholder money with the intent to promote the election or defeat of a candidate for political office," Kaufman said.
“What makes today’s decision particularly galling is that it is at odds with the testimony of the most recently confirmed members of the Court’s majority, who during their confirmation hearings claimed to have a deep respect for existing precedent. Although claims of ‘judicial activism’ are often lobbed, as if by rote, at nominees of Democratic presidents, including Justice Sotomayor, this case is just one in a long line of disturbing cases in which purportedly ‘conservative’ justices have felt free to disregard settled law on a broad range of issues – equal pay, antitrust, age discrimination, corporate liability, and now, the corrupting influence of corporate campaign expenditures – all in ways that favor corporate interests over the rights of American citizens.
“We in Congress must do what we can to blunt the devastating impact that this decision threatens to visit on electoral politics.”
Last June, in advance of Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing, Kaufman published an op-ed in the Legal Times on judicial activism.
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