dollars for campaigns surprise the entire nation

The decision taken by the Supreme Court (Citizens United versus Federal Election Commission) focused on the powers of the business world to spend dollars freely for political campaigns. Ad lib dollars for political campaigns takes the nation by surprise; but a greater surprise was the widely expressed dislike for such a ruling among the think tanks of the country.

The storm is still raging and has not subsided. In a recent poll 56% of those who had voted for Republicans in 2008 elections opposed the ruling. 33% favoured it. Another poll showed 76% Republican supporters opposed it – close to 85% of the Democratic supporters who were against it.

It is part of the widespread public outcry against bailouts and bonuses. The timing of the ruling by the Supreme Court was awkward. John G. Roberts the Chief Justice and four others who were in the majority have been isolated – the only friends left beside the corporate world of America.

Just at a time when the conservatives managed with great difficulty to club together an ideal team in the Supreme Court, things have gone awry in the tea-party. Right across the country the people have been shocked at the decision of the Supreme Court. How could the highest court equated corporations to be “persons” with equal rights like other citizens to the right of the First Amendment to free speech?

Yet the idea of a corporate being taken as a person is not an invention of Roberts and his colleagues. It goes back to the 19th century. The Supreme Court has been more and more active in protecting corporate and commercial rights for many decades. Seen in this context the ruling was not a sudden break from the past – rather it can be taken to be a culmination of trends that have been prevailing for quite some time.

The decision taken with the public chastising of the Supreme Court by the President last month in State of Union speech can be taken as a call to all and sundry to wake up and focus on this and like issues that have been stealthily creeping up. The public is not happy with what they are seeing with their eyes open. The moot question is whether dissatisfaction with one particular ruling will snowball into a general rancor against the jurisdiction.

The last time such a strong opposition surfaced was in 2005 when an interpretation of the Fifth Amendment permitted government to transfer private property in effect to corporations on the plea of economic development.

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