Joel Hendon

Better Understanding The January 21 Supreme Court’s Decision


Posted: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html

In an article written a few days ago, I expressed the view that I did not like the decision made by the Supreme Court on January 21. But after reading it and also some background concerning it, I have come to a complete agreement with it.

The first things I had read was, it primarily took away the limits on contributions to candidates from corporations and unions, and other such entities. It does not. In fact the present limits of donations directly to a candidate by big businesses remain the same.

What it did do, is remove the limits that corporations can spend in their own campaigning for or against a candidate and erase the ban on airing such things within 60 days of the election day. Both for the primaries and the general elections. Fortunately, for the Republicans, they had nothing to do with this fight. Otherwise you would be hearing damnings beyond imagination. You are hearing, heavily, criticisms because the conservatives support the decision

The court case that brought the decision, was begun in January 2008 when the Democratic presidential primaries were big news. Filmmaker and President of Citizens United organization, David Bossie, had created a 90 minute documentary film entitled "Hillary; The Movie". Officials in the Federal Election Committee contacted Bossie and advised him the movie could not be advertised nor could it be aired. They cited the fact that she was a candidate for a Federal office, and the film would violate federal law. CU filed suit against the FEC, claiming their freedom of speech, guaranteed by the first amendment, was being denied.

Some Democrats, in an effort to try and gain some political advantage from this, are saying it will hurt the Republicans because of public opinion against the ruling. Eventhough the Citizens United are a conservative group, no one should blame the Republican Party in this. And they are saying the five judges were conservative activists. Four might be called by some as conservative but Justice Kennedy, who wrote the opinion, is by no means a conservative. He has sided with the liberals in such cases as the one which declared that sodomy was a constitutional right. Which is ridiculous.

I said earlier, that I wish campaign spending had a very low cap. I don't know how it could be put into law and remain constitutional, but I wish it were possible. However, this ruling, I believe was definitely right in view of the First Amendment. You should each read the court opinions for this case. It is over 100 pages long and if you don't feel up to reading that much, I urge you to read the first 10-20 pages which describe, quite clearly, the basis for the decision. You may access it here: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf

Author Biography: Joel Hendon was born near Gadsden Alabama. He attended public schools in Cherokee County, Alabama and after serving a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, attended Jacksonville State University, majoring in Business Administration. He became a Christian in 1948, and although he followed secular work as a career and retired from Allied Signal Aerospace, he is an avid student of the Holy Bible and related works as well as biblical history. He has an extensive website of conservative religious and political articles.http://hebronics.org/index.html

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