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Citizens United, Citizens' Lives
July 2010
Category: First Amendment, Independent Speech, Jurisprudence & Litigation
Center for Competitive Politics
President Obama has claimed that the U.S Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission will empower "powerful interests" to "drown out the voices of everyday Americans." In an analysis of state-specific data, CCP president Sean Parnell dispels this myth that the "public interest" will be adversely affected by the elimination of limits on independent political spending. CCP compared several policy and general welfare indicators considering that 24 states restricted political spending pre-Citizens United (contrasted with the 26 states which allowed unlimited independent spending). In this analysis, CCP demonstrates that there is no positive correlation between corporate spending and policy outcomes. There is no evidence that freedom for corporations, unions and advocacy groups to exercise their First Amendment rights in 26 states has caused any adverse impact on policy compared to the 24 states that restricted such spending.
The Liberal Mythology of an "Activist" Court: Citizens United and Ledbetter
Robert Alt and Hans A. von Spakovsky
June 2010
Category: Faulty Assumptions, First Amendment, Jurisprudence & Litigation
The Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum No. 54
Opponents of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC are currently engaged in a concerted effort to redefine judicial activism. Rather than accepting the true definition of judicial activism-when a judge applies his or her own policy preferences to uphold a statute or other government action which is clearly forbidden by the Constitution-the term is being applied anytime a statute is struck down or when a court delivers an unfavorable decision. Yet, the facts of this case and an examination of the legal analysis applied by the justices in their majority opinion show that there is no merit to any of these claims. Rather, the justices followed the original meaning of the Constitution and the applicable statutes when deciding the Citizens United case. In making their decision, the justices relied on precedents set in the seminal finance cases Buckley v. Valeo and Bellotti v. First National Bank of Boston. The cynical and derisive cries of judicial activism by Citizens United's opponents are unfair to the justices who participated in these decisions and injure the public's faith and confidence in the judicial system.
