Judge voids ban on corporate campaign donations
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeA federal judge in Virginia has declared unconstitutional a century-old law banning political contributions from corporations, a ruling that, if upheld, could have major implications for the rules governing campaign fund-raising and spending.There is more.
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Still, the ruling drew from and extended the reasoning in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last year in the Citizens United case. The justices ruled in that case that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections, but did not address the current bans on direct contributions by corporations to candidates.
In his decision, Judge Cacheris said that if corporations and people have an equivalent right to free speech under Citizens United, they also have an equivalent right to contribute to candidates, albeit within the same limits currently established by federal law.
“That logic is inescapable here,” Judge Cacheris wrote.
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I think this case could be used to argue that the conviction of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay in Texas was unconstitutional because the underlying rationale for the case was that corporate money wound up being used to finance some campaigns. The case could give the Court of Criminal Appeals another reason to throw out the verdict against DeLay.
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