The Supreme Court, in its Citizens United decision, ruled that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts in elections. Now politicians in Kentucky are claiming they have a Constitutional right to receive gifts from lobbyists.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Republican Kentucky state Sen. John Schickel, along with two Libertarian political candidates, are suing to overturn state ethics laws, claiming that the campaign contribution limit of $1,000 and a ban on gifts from lobbyists and their employers are a violation of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Kentucky’s ethics laws were passed in 1992 after an FBI investigation exposed a number of local politicians selling their votes.
Corporations have increasingly turned to new interpretations of the First Amendment as a legal strategy. Bond-rating agencies that gave high grades to toxic mortgage-backed securities claimed in court that doing so was their First Amendment right. Lobbyists have argued that food-labeling laws undermine the meat industry’s right to free speech. And similarly, AT&T recently argued that net neutrality violates the ISP industry’s First Amendment rights.
From last year’s post: Kentucky Politician Files Lawsuit Claiming a First Amendment Right to Accept Bribes
The above story related to Kentucky. Today’s story zeroes in on Virginia. The key theme here is obvious, that the U.S. court system seems intent on making it easier and easier for the already widespread corruption endemic to American politics to grow further.
Jeffrey Toobin noted the following yesterday in the New Yorker:
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