smj wrote:
And now corporations are legally people, who's spending to buy politicians is legally ruled to be "free speech" and can be funnelled into untraceable SuperPACs.
I feel your pain. But don't forget that the case in question was around a company that put out a documentary movie slamming H. Clinton. It was supposed to air on TV, but under McCain-Feingold (passed under Bush) it got yanked and the corporation got hauled into court because the US government said, "You can't show a movie or publish a book that is critical of a politician during election season!"
The court kind of got squeezed on that one, because the government was arguing for such an aggressive reading of the law that basically nothing but an authorized news outlet or a solitary individual could publish or distribute anything--text, audio, or video--that talked about any politician within a certain window of approaching elections. For that purpose, and from a loooooooong history of law*, they placed corporations (in this case, a non-profit corporation) in the category of 'person' entitled to the right of speech. That is, they rejected the USG's argument that any number of single persons on their own had a right to say something, but if they came together and pooled their resources into an organization they lost the right to say that same thing.
So, yeah, I understand being a bit miffed out the outcome, but you have to look at what they were trying to avoid as well. The USG's argument was specifically intended to prevent citizens from being able to pool their resources for political speech. You could speak, but only if you did it alone. That works OK if "speech" means writing something on your blog, but how in the world could you make a movie and get it distributed all by yourself? 'AH, yes, Viacom, just make the check payable to, "John Smith," it's all on my personal account...'
They stepped so far over and away from sanity, they pretty much forced the court's hand, IMO, and are more to blame for any negative consequences than the court.
*Just one unrelated example, but the Virginia False Claims Act says:
“Person” includes any natural person, corporation, firm, association, organization, partnership, limited liability company, business or trust.
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