Info_Find: Corporate fingers in the Supreme Court pie?

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Citizens United v. Federal Elections Committee. This ruling overturned prior precedent and dismantled restrictions on corporate and union political spending. According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, this resulted in outside groups spending more than $296 million on the 2010 Congressional midterms--a 330% increase over 2006--with more than $135 million of that coming from undisclosed donors.

Even more disturbing, CommonCause.org recently discovered that Justices Thomas and Scalia may have attended functions given by Koch Industries (who I wrote about in a previous post) while they were hearing the case. Koch Industries organizes retreats for wealthy, influential conservatives, at which they determine strategies and platforms for upcoming elections. Attendees of these events include heads of major corporations across many industries, all of whom have a vested interest in arguing for broader rights for corporations.

Justices Thomas and Scalia's presence at such events could be argued to be severely prejudicial. Common Cause has stated that they should have recused themselves from the case, and is calling for an investigation into the ruling by the Justice Department.

So why does this matter? We are moving toward (and are arguably in) an election system in which the side with more money wins. This represents socioeconomic disenfranchisement. The broader and stronger the rights of corporations become, the greater the risk to the rights and protections of anyone who opposes them.

You can read a full accounting of Justices Thomas and Scalia's actions and sign a petition to Attorney General Eric Holder for a Justice Department investigation here.