Yesterday’s Citizens United ruling [PDF] by the Supreme Court has has now made it possible for corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose candidates … and to hear the Religious Right tell it, it’s a victory for the little guy:
Kelly Shackelford, president of the Free Market Foundation, tells OneNewsNow the decision is a great victory for freedom for every citizen.
“The government has no right to control the speech of citizens speaking out as a group during elections — and these types of campaign finance laws are pure evil and destructive to any free society,” he comments.
Shackelford notes that wealthy individuals such as George Soros are having a huge impact on elections, and he adds, “The idea that a group of citizens can’t come together in some sort of corporate entity and speak their mind is really discrimination against the regular guy in this country” and against smaller businesses that want to take part in the election process.
The Family Research Council hails it as a victory for all of those oppressed “corporate citizens“:
“Under the principles established by the First Amendment, nothing is more foundational than free speech. This is a win for free political speech and the right of corporate citizens to join the political process.
“The court’s decision is a step toward restoring open political discourse in this country. Speech should not be truncated by government regulation; rather, transparency should be pursued. The standard of accountability must be full and prompt disclosure, not unconstitutional prohibitions on financial contributions.
While Focus on the Family rejoices, because apparently up until now, they too were having their voices silenced:
Tim Goeglein, vice president of external relations for Focus on the Family Action, said the pro-family movement will benefit.
“Organizations like Focus on the Family Action, the family policy councils, all of our allies,” he said, “this will give us an incredible voice in the great issues of our time.”
And Concerned Women for America declares that “Americans are the real winners today” and says the decision is the first step toward reclaiming “the ideals our Founders believed in when they fought and died to establish a country where we can be truly free to speak and worship our God without government interference”:
Penny Young Nance, Concerned Women for America’s (CWA) Chief Executive Officer, said, “The Court correctly concluded that judges should stop playing semantics with our Constitution and read the text as it is written. The government should not be limiting political speech because someone is rich or poor, or because they disagree with a particular point of view. Americans are the real winners today. Further, I recall upon the passage of the legislation that Members of Congress openly admitted voting in favor of the McCain-Feingold knowing it was unconstitutional. Those days have to end.”
CWA President Wendy Wright said, “CWA joined an Amicus brief asking the Court to overrule these laws that serve only to chill political speech and open the door for those in power to choose favorites. We applaud the Court for listening to the voices of millions of Americans who believe in those foundational principles embodied by the First Amendment.
“We hope this is just the first in a series of steps to reclaim the ideals our Founders believed in when they fought and died to establish a country where we can be truly free to speak and worship our God without government interference.”
You know, I wonder what these groups will be saying if the makers of Plan B were to now start pumping their $11 Billion into taking out conservative candidates who oppose their product.
