The supreme court today handed down a decision in a case on federal election spending by corporations.  Basically, the new ruling, which reverses about 100 years or so of precedent, grants corporations free speech rights in regards to federal election campaigns.  Given that (according to CNN) 22 or so states have similar laws on the books regarding state level campaigns, we can also expect this reversal to apply to state legislatures by the 2010 elections.  The ruling also applies to unions and trade groups in addition to corporations.

I really have a hard time comprehending just how horrible this is going to be.  Especially at the state and local levels.  We’ll start there.  For example, lets say a state appointed regulator makes a change that costs big corporation X (BCX) a lot of money, but is in the best interests of the states citizens.  BCX calls the Governor and tells them to fix the problem.  Governor refuses.  BCX then spends half of however many millions per year the regulators decision is costing them to defeat the governor who refused to fix the problem.  New governor appoints someone who agrees to repeal the regulation.  Corporation makes money in year one, and more going forward.

The really scary thing about this is that corporations won’t be just tempted to fiddle with politics by ideology, they’ll be driven to it by fiduciary duty to their investors.  There is literally no way this doesn’t go horrifyingly badly for consumers and non-corporate citizens.

Tags: campaign spending, corporate spending, decision repeal, electioneering, mccain-feingold, supreme court