A conservative 5-4 majority of justices said the law violated free speech.
Washington -- The Supreme Court has tossed out an Arizona law that provides extra taxpayer-funded support for office seekers who have been outspent by privately funded opponents or by independent political groups.
A conservative 5-4 majority of justices on Monday said the law violated free speech, concluding the state was impermissibly trying to "level the playing field" through a public finance system.
This is what happens when people elect "conservative" Republican presidents. So-called conservatives then dominate the Supreme Court. It is truly obscene that they are systematically obliterating any hope for a healthy democracy not poisoned by the undue influence of money. They are simply handing democracy over to moneyed interests. Once the wealthy and big business are able to spend as much as they like influencing voters, they win. That's because more money buys more influence among voters, which, of course, translates into legislation and policy that favors those with money.
President Obama didn't take a single dime from public financed Campaign money - almost all of it coming from small donations ($20 was the average) from average Americans....not MILLIONS from Corporations who I don't know...might have a stake (through lobbyists) on how the government is run and what laws get passed. I'm a Progressive and find this very upsetting. This is the whole reason why they tried to pass this law - so that politicians can compete against those with corporate interests in their pockets.
Voting poorly and not voting at all have consequences. We're suffering immensely from the disastrous the Bush presidency, from our wrecked economy to our illegal, ugly wars to an extreme far right supreme court that has horrors placed on the bench by Bush.