Supreme Court

Citizens United v. Everyone

I have no idea if this is good news or bad news.

The opinion on the case brought by the conservative advocacy group Citizens United is overdue and today was pushed back by at least another week.

If, in fact, the Court rules in favor of Citizens United (and in favor of rolling back McCain-Feingold), there's a stop gap measure in the works:

Democrats said Tuesday they are already deeply involved in planning for a legislative response, should the court ruling undo longstanding restrictions on corporate and union spending on television ads during the closing weeks of a campaign.

ABC News has learned that Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D.-N.Y., have been talking with the White House and top Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias to plot out possible remedies that they can try to move through Congress in advance of the 2010 midterm elections.

We can only hope. A decision in favor of Citizens United would be a disaster of epic proportions. Corporate influence in politics is bad enough now -- with regulations. Imagine what few regulations we have now just deleted, leaving a clear road for corporations to entirely sponsor political campaigns, with First Amendment protections and constitutional personhood backing them up.