Supreme Court Could Hand Over Elections to Corporate Sponsors

The Supreme Court will hear arguments next Wednesday in a case that could result in a massive rollback of campaign finance reform law, essentially giving corporations the freedom to buy influence over elected officials and direct national policy. As we have seen time and time again, with corporations placing profits before all else, this could have devastating consequences for consumers.

Public Citizen, a prominent consumer advocacy group, is asking people to make a “Pledge to Protest” against any ruling that would roll back crucial campaign finance reform laws that protect the American election process.

According to their website DontGetRolled.org:

This fall, a century of modest limits on corporate influence in politics could be completely rolled back, crushing progress on health care, the environment, energy, economic recovery… on everything!

The Supreme Court on September 9 hears a case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, that reopens the question of unlimited corporate money in our elections. In a stunning move, the Court will reach back and reconsider two other pivotal campaign finance cases settled long ago. The potential result? A century-old pillar of campaign finance doctrine could be swept away.

The examples of corporations placing profits before the safety of consumers and the public good are all around us.

Just this week, it was announced that Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, will pay over $2 billion in fines for illegally marketing drugs to increase sales, even though they were aware of serious and potentially life-threatening side effects that could be caused. This was at least the fourth time Pfizer has paid a fine for illegal marketing of their products since 2002. For an international mega-company with full-year revenues of $48.3 billion in 2008, fines like this (which is the largest criminal fine in U.S. history) appear to be nothing more than the cost of doing business.

If limits on corporate campaign contributions are overturned, it will have a profound and immediate effect on the nation’s political process, with corporate treasure chests and payouts to elected officials eclipsing anything the public could contribute. Giving them unfettered access to influence politicians means that they could bend the nation’s laws to achieve the results that benefit the bottom line. Such hot button issues as consumer protection, health care, product liability laws and environmental issues could be forever changed.

It seems hard to imaging that the Supreme Court would take such actions, but given the current Justices, it is an unfortunate possibility. It seemed equally unthinkable that the United States Supreme Court would find that the maker of a medical device does not have any liability for injuries caused when they sell a defectively designed product.

To learn more about this issue and what consumers can do, visit DontGetRolled.org.