You have to hand it to the Supreme Court, or as my friends and I like to call them the Nazgûl, they serve their master well. Whenever a law interferes with agents of the federal government the Supreme Court is there to rule that law unconstitutional. Any law that helps agents of the federal government, even if the law requires people to buy something from one of the federal government’s numerous corporate partners, is ruled constitutional.
For a while there has been a thorn in the side of federal politicians. This thorn was a cap put on the amount of money that organizations and individuals could contribute to federal campaigns. I’m using the past tense because the Supreme Court has ruled such caps unconstitutional:
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a major campaign finance decision, striking down limits on federal campaign contributions for the first time. The ruling, issued near the start of a campaign season, will change and most likely increase the role money plays in American politics.
The decision, by a 5-to-4 vote along ideological lines, was sort of a sequel to Citizens United, the 2010 decision that struck down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions. But that ruling did nothing to disturb the other main form of campaign finance regulation: caps on direct contributions to candidates and political parties.
Judging by what I’ve read so far there are quite a few people upset at this ruling. But I’m not. Anybody who has been paying attention to money as it relates to politics already knows that campaign contribution caps were mythical. The laws merely required individuals wanting to send more money to federal campaigns to play by a slightly different set of rules. This ruling is a formality that simply removed a thin veil of deceit that made people believe there was actually some form of limit organizations and individuals to contribute to political campaigns.
For those of you who are upset by the Supreme Court’s ruling just remember that the Nazgûl are merely slaves to the One Ring.