By Joe Trotter
The Supreme Court’s decision overturned blatantly unconstitutional parts of a law designed to prevent freedom of association among individuals with the purpose of speaking out about politics. At its core, Citizens United was about whether the government could ban a nonprofit corporation, from distributing a movie about a political candidate.
The decision did not “reversed a century of law to open the floodgates – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections,” as President Barack Obama famously chastised the Supreme Court. Rather, the decision allowed organizations to do what wealthy individuals have always been able to do: make independent expenditures advocating for or against a chosen candidate.
