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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Justices Overturn Key Campaign Limits


Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold, pictured in 2006,
were the co-sponsors of the campaign finance law.
From The New York Times
By Adam Liptak


S
weeping aside a century-old understanding and overruling two important precedents,
a bitterly divided
Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

The ruling was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace will corrupt democracy.

The 5-to-4 decision was a doctrinal earthquake but also a political and practical one. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision, which also applies to labor unions and other organizations, to reshape the way elections are conducted.

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