The jury has ruled: the Supreme Court is wrong

Friday, February 26, 2010

By Elizabeth Griswold
Photographer

On Jan. 21, the Supreme Court made a landmark 5-4 ruling in favor of America’s big-name corporations in the case of Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission. This decision is simply wrong for America.

The justices’ ruling states that corporations have a right to spend without restriction on America’s political campaigns. This decision effectively gives corporations control over all United States elections.

By recognizing corporations as individuals, the U.S. has given them the right to rig politcal elections. In giving them an individual’s First Amendment rights, the Supreme Court is allowing this nation’s richest, non-human individuals to buy and sell elected officials as they please.

The allowance of private spending will further these companies’ private agendas and make a dent in the legitimacy of all elections.

Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission has done what most issues of this kind of magnitude do: pitted these Democrats and Republicans against one another. Once the richest corporate spenders have placed their corrupyly purchased politicians in office, the wrongness of this decision will become apparent.

Eventually, this system allowing big spenders to have their way will lead to the one outcome the U.S. fought to rid itself of in the 1770s: a self-involved, self-empowering and self-appointed central government.

Even if supporters of this bill have a change of heart, nothing will be able to stop its progression. By the time America fully recognizes the implications and potential dangers of this decision, the snowball will have started to roll. Companies will have already corrupted elections.

The court’s conservative bloc argues that corporations have the exact same rights as an individual under the First Amendment. By restricting corporations’ private spending, justices claim, the United States was denying these “individuals” their constitutional right to spend freely and, therefore, better spread and enforce their percieved free speech.

Even if America’s corporations deserved these liberties, the negative effects that they will have on all political elections will surely outweigh the benefits that the companies will enjoy.

The only way to stop this possibly disastrous decision is to quickly and thoroughly inform the American public of its implications, because this ruling could affect elections as quickly as this November.

In their sophomore year at Mira Costa, students are required to read George Orwell’s novel 1984. In 1984, the book’s fictional government works through slogans and propaganda. Two phrases often used are “Big Brother is Watching You” and “War is Peace, Slavery is Freedom, Ignorance is Strength.”.

With this in mind, we might be able to accurately picture a highy similar situation within the near future. The only free speech that will matter is the free speech given to corporations today. Any (and most likely all) naysayers will be quickly silenced, perhaps by a generous donation to their campaign.