The Supreme Court’s Cowardice

In summarily dismissing a Montana case in which the state’s high court had upheld an anti- corruption statute regulating corporate spending on elections, the U.S. Supreme Court this week opted to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no truth. The Montana case presented the court with an opportunity -- no, an obligation -- to revisit its controversial Citizens United decision of 2010 and bring that ruling into line with objective fact. Instead, the Citizens United majority, led by Justice Anthony Kennedy, slinked away from a confrontation with reality.

Objections to Citizens United, which freed corporations and unions to spend unlimited sums on politics, generally focus on the avalanche of money spent by super-PACs. However, most of that money has been spent by wealthy individuals, not corporations. And though the Citizens United ruling certainly adopted an expansive and ideological view of First Amendment rights, it was not without a constitutional mooring. The First Amendment ain’t beanbag.

What undermines the ruling’s legitimacy is its flights of fancy about the world of political finance. In an assertion of shocking naivete, Kennedy, writing for the court’s 5-4 majority, said corporate independent campaign expenditures “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”

Montana begged to differ. Based on its history, which included the wholesale purchase of the state’s Legislature and political class by mine owners more than a century ago, Montana restricted corporate spending in elections. It did so not because the state abhors free speech, but because it required a bulwark against corporate corruption that had subverted the state’s laws and threatened the well-being of its citizens...