"Appearance of impropriety" doesn't matter to this backwards-ass conservative-packed Supreme Court

Because throughout history there has never been a correlation between injecting unlimited amounts of cash into elections and having even the barest appearance of impropriety, am I right Scalia and the other four fucks?

Well, I can see that an institution that allows Clarence Thomas to refuse to recuse himself in cases where he has an obvious conflict of interest might not get how some things cause an appearance of impropriety.

This is why we need to be diligent to never, never, EVER let a Republican near the White House again, at least until the scourge of this horrible, tone-deaf, backwards-ass, ultra-conservative court finally dies or retires and we can get some people who live in the real world on the court.

Because in the real world, we need the Voting Rights Act more so now than ever - just look at what Republicans have been doing from the second they repealed it. Just look at the influence a handful of billionaires have had on political discourse.

And in the real world, money is a corrupting influence. In the real world, a handful of wealthy donors can influence the outcome and more importantly the legislative goals of those who are elected. Hell, these folks write the laws now and have their devoted lapdogs in state congresses just pass them along.

We the people… Who have the money. The rest of you can fuck right off.

This is disgusting. Fuck the court and everyone complicit in turning America into a Plutocracy, one horrible ruling at a time.

The Golden Rule. Guy who’s got the gold, makes the rules.

Headline for the day: Free Speech Triumphs; Liberals Whine.

Headline for the day: Conservative Moron Claps Like a Retard Because He’s So Brainwashed by Rightwing Media That He Thinks Corporate Oligarchy Will Make His Life Better.

Get a fucking clue and read the case. There are still limits on how much and individual can contribute to a specific candidate. That hasn’t changed. But if I want to give the max contribution to every candidate out there, then I now can. As opposed to some artificial limit on the number of candidates I could support.

Go ahead and let me know when there is any meaningful correlation between money and influence over politicians.

I’ll be waiting.

Meanwhile, back in the real world: The most powerful lobbying group in the country is the NRA. The NRA is feared because of their membership and their votes, not because of the paltry amount of money that they spend. Many other groups and corporations outspend them and have far less influence.

Go ahead and try and win in the marketplace of ideas. If you don’t like somebody else’s ad against your candidate, donate money to a politician or lobbying group so they can counter it. Free speech is a good thing. The first amendment is more important than your reflexive fear and hatred of money.

<spit-take>

It’s weird when you can see their crazy out front.

Which is sad, because the NRA’s chief motivation is pretty clearly spreading fear to justify its own existence, because there’s no real threat to private gun ownership in this country. It’s a prime example of how every movement becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.

Oh. So you can buy them all and only make the electoral process wholly irrelevant. Well, that’s no big then, pfft, what’s with the hysterics, OP ?

<spit-take>

Tell that to the 300,000 newly made felons in CT.

Absolutely. In the blink of an eye… and the expiration of an entire year within which to decide to submit an application or to elect not to… 300,000 newly made felons.

You can? Good for you.

Personally, I can’t do it. It costs $1,391,000 to give the maximum contribution to every Congressman. So I’m thinking this decision does nothing for me or the majority of Americans like me.

Gosh-I can’t seem to find a link to all those court cases where 300,000 people in CT were suddenly convicted of felonies. Link, please?

You are lied to by your media. They tell you outrageous stuff like this to make you angry.

The individual contribution limit per candidate is hardly enough for anyone to be bought.

Here’s the match, you’ll need it now that you’ve sprayed lighter fluid all over your hair.

Good thing constitutional issues aren’t about “majority rule”.

Wipe it up immediately, Thunderbird wine is really bad for your 'puter!

Ok, I guess someone may as well actually read the ruling;

[QUOTE=The Supreme Court, McCutcheon v. FEC]

The right to participate in democracy through political contributions is protected by the First Amendment, but that right is not absolute.Congress may regulate campaign contributions to protect againstcorruption or the appearance of corruption. See, e.g., Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 26–27. It may not, however, regulate contributions simply to reduce the amount of money in politics, or to restrictthe political participation of some in order to enhance the relative influence of others. See, e.g., Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett, 564 U. S. ___, ___.

Significant First Amendment interests are implicated here. Contributing money to a candidate is an exercise of an individual’sright to participate in the electoral process through both political expression and political association… In assessing the First Amendment interests at stake, the proper focus is on an individual’s right to engage in political speech, not a collective conception of the public good. The whole point of the FirstAmendment is to protect individual speech that the majority might prefer to restrict, or that legislators or judges might not view as useful to the democratic process. Pp. 14–18.

This Court has identified only one legitimate governmental interest for restricting campaign finances: preventing corruption or the appearance of corruption. See Davis, supra, at 741. Moreover, the only type of corruption that Congress may target is quid pro quo corruption. Spending large sums of money in connection with elections, but not in connection with an effort to control the exercise of an officeholder’s official duties, does not give rise to quid pro quo corruption. Nor does the possibility that an individual who spends largesums may garner “influence over or access to” elected officials or political parties. Citizens United v. Federal Election Comm’n, 558 U. S. 310, 359. The line between quid pro quo corruption and general influence must be respected in order to safeguard basic First Amendment rights, and the Court must “err on the side of protecting political speech rather than suppressing it.” Federal Election Comm’n v. Wisconsin Right to Life, 551 U. S. 449, 457 (opinion of ROBERTS, C. J.). Pp. 18–21.

The Government argues that the aggregate limits further thepermissible objective of preventing quid pro quo corruption. The difficulty is that once the aggregate limits kick in, they ban all contributions of any amount, even though Congress’s selection of a base limitindicates its belief that contributions beneath that amount do not create a cognizable risk of corruption. The Government must thus defend the aggregate limits by demonstrating that they prevent circumvention of the base limits, a function they do not serve in anymeaningful way. Given the statutes and regulations currently in effect, Buckley’s fear that an individual might “contribute massiveamounts of money to a particular candidate through . . . unearmarked contributions” to entities likely to support the candidate, 424 U.S., at 38, is far too speculative. Even accepting Buckley’s circumvention theory, it is hard to see how a candidate today could receive“massive amounts of money” that could be traced back to a particulardonor uninhibited by the aggregate limits. The Government’s scenarios offered in support of that possibility are either illegal under current campaign finance laws or implausible. Pp. 21–30.
[/QUOTE]

From what I’m seeing here, it seems like a sound decision to me; the aggregate limit on donations to individual candidates does not meet a constitutional standard for limiting the individual’s right to political participation. Perhaps you should be less peeved at the Court for making the ruling than you ought to be at the Constitution for allowing the ruling to be made.

Boy, sure a good thing the Constitution cannot be misused or misapplied in order to protect an injustice! What a relief! Whew! Sure dodged a musketball that time, huh?