Justice Stevens Rips Into John Roberts' Campaign Finance Ruling

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-paul-stevens-campaign-finance-mccutcheon-john-roberts

AP Photo / Danny Johnston

Retired Justice John Paul Stevens is taking aim at the Supreme Court's recent 5-4 decision to eliminate the limit on a person's aggregate expenditures to political candidates and committees in an election cycle.

"The voter is less important than the man who provides money to the candidate," he told theNew York Times, criticizing what he views as the premise of Chief Justice John Roberts' controlling opinion. "It's really wrong."

Before he retired in 2010, Stevens was outspoken in defending the legality of campaign finance limits. Most famously he wrote the scathing dissent against the Citizens United ruling that opened the floodgates for unlimited independent expenditures to influence elections. Now he's taking aim at the McCutcheon v. FEC, written by Roberts, in which the same five justices dealt another blow to campaign finance regulations.

Stevens told the Times' Adam Liptak that the very first sentence of Roberts' opinion -- "There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders." -- was misleading. "The first sentence here is not really about what the case is about," the former justice said.

He posited that the decisive opinion reflected "an incorrect view of the law" but allowed that it was consistent with the reasoning in Citizens United. "The opinion," he said, "has the merit of being faithful to the notion that money is speech and that out-of-district money has the same First Amendment protection as in-district money."

i think this is informative but they have lifetime appointment so until someone has the courage to put forward a bill that would do away with that we will be subject to which party has the most judges at any given time, we see that is the wrong approach i know their job is to interpret the law that mantel on the building "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW" has become another joke recent decisions prove that out citizens united, voter laws struck down because states were not needed to ask permission before changing in this case voter laws which several republican states set about doing seconds after the decision was handed down, that should have prompted a self repeal by the court, but it was the right wing side of the court that has the majority and we are subject to their party inclinations more so than justice.

no more lifetime appt. for anything gov't.  he's right the guy doling out the Benjamins is more important than "we the people" who the gov't is supposed to be by and for.    remember Beohner handing out bribe checks on the house floor from big tobacco?  why is this guy still there?

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/john-boehner-admits-giving-bribes-big-t