Election Law Quotes
conservative justices in the majority McCain held this view despite the fact that most other politicians applauded the decision since the large, wealthy corporations tended to support Republicans.
The Supreme court ruled that monetary campaign contributions were a form of political speech and as such could not be limited. The result was that the richest people and the largest corporations could pay any politician any amount of money if the called it a campaign contribution. Under the Congressional rules at the time there were ways that the so called campaign contributions could be used for the legislator’s personal and family benefit and when members of Congress retired there were ways that they could take their “unspent” campaign funds with them for personal use. The resultant system was what Senator McCain called “bribery”, which before the Supreme Court rendered this decision was a felony. That which had been unethical and criminal became legal.
This was a year after the United States gave women the right to vote.
The influence of monied corporations had reached a degree that there was a national backlash and this law was passed. A century later, the problem was even worse. Instead of corporations giving money to candidates campaigns, corporations give money to Political Action Committees (PACs). Corporate money still is a major factor in politics.
The Citizens United case held that it was unconstitutional to limit the amount of money that corporations could spend political campaigns.
