In April the Supreme Court ruled that caps on campaign contributions were unconstitutional. This ruling was most conveniently timed as the political season is ramping up, which means both incumbents and would-be politicians can reap the maximum benefit from this unhindered cash flow. Here in Minnesota there was a separate law that determined how much politicians can accept and a federal judge just shot that down:
A federal court judge has ordered that a campaign finance law that limits how much money candidates can accept from wealthy donors be suspended.
The order marks the local legal impact of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that removed overall caps from how much money donors could give to federal candidates.
The Minnesota branch of the Institute for Justice and four plaintiffs, including two current and former Minnesota lawmakers, used the Supreme Court’s ruling in the McCutcheon case to argue that the state’s limits on ”special source” donations prevent free speech.
Here in Minnesota judges are elected. I wouldn’t go so far as to insinuate that this federal judge was looking out for his state level cohorts but, never mind, I am insinuating that.
It also wouldn’t surprise me if members of the Minnesota Congress and judiciary met and determined who would take the popular opinion hit to shoot down this restriction on campaign finances during this election cycle. Since the state Congress has take several major hits already it was probably determined that the judiciary should take one for the oligarchy this time around. Either way this ruling really changes very little. The wealthy have always been the ones to buy elections. Now they just have to pay more for them.