Al Franken: “I will just come out and say it. Citizens United was one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. It…”

“I will just come out and say it. Citizens United was one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. It was a disaster, a radical exercise of pro-corporate judicial activism. It was seriously flawed both legally and factually. Legally, the Court trampled its own precedence--cases such as Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and McConnell v. Federal Elections Commission, which had been on the books for years and stood for the obvious proposition that the people can enact reasonable limits on money and politics. Factually, the Court rested its conclusions on the faultiest of premises--that unlimited campaign expenditures by outside groups, including corporations, do not give rise to corruption or even the appearance of corruption. That assessment is disconnected from reality and is horribly out of touch with the sentiments of most Americans. For example, the Minnesota League of Women Voters issued a report in which it concluded that ``the influence of money in politics represents a dangerous threat to the health of our democracy in Minnesota and nationally.'' I think if you asked most people whether unlimited spending on campaigns has a corrupting effect, they would agree and say, yes, of course it does, and I think they would be right. But the decision in Citizens United was based on this unfounded and unbelievable idea that we have no reason to be concerned about the effects of unlimited campaign spending.…”