today, the Senate is attempting to fix an important problem created earlier this year by the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In that case, five Supreme Court Justices cast aside a century of law and opened the floodgates for corporations to drown out individual voices in our elections. The broad scope of the Citizens United decision was unnecessary and improper. At the expense of hardworking Americans, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could become the predominant influence in our elections for years to come. Citizens United is the latest example in which a thin majority of the Supreme Court placed its own preferences over the will of hard working Americans. The landmark McCain-Feingold Act's campaign finance reforms were the product of lengthy debate in Congress as to the proper role of corporate money in the electoral process. Those laws strengthened the rights of individual voters, while carefully preserving the integrity of the political process. However, with one stroke of the pen, five Justices cast aside those years of deliberation, and substituted their own preferences over the will of Congress and the American people. The American people have expressed their concerns over this decision, and recognize that without congressional action, Citizens United threatens to impact the outcome of our elections.
Editor's note · Context
Leahy addresses the impact of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision on campaign finance and elections.
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