Commentary: Some Criticism of 'Citizens United' Unjustified

Summary

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Two months after the Congressional election we are still assessing the impact on the election of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last January in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S., 130 S.Ct. 876 (2010). Groups are wading through the campaign finance disclosure reports to figure out who gave how much to whom and when.

Citizens United and a second lower court decision invalidated certain restrictions on indirect corporate expenditures advocating for or against the election of a candidate. Many restrictions on corporate campaign contributions survived, such as the bans on coordinating the indirect expenditures with the candidate and contributing directly to a campaign. Congress enacted the second ban in 1907.

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Extract

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Commentary: Some Criticism of 'Citizens United' Unjustified

You could not tell this from The New York Times editorial published the day after the decision. It proclaimed that the "disastrous" ruling has "thrust politics back to the robber-baron era...

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