
With all the discussion at Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing of the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case, many Americans are probably in need of an easy primer to understand the decision, which holds that corporations, like individual citizens, can make unlimited political contributions. According to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the top Republican on the Judiciary committee, it's just like the time the Supreme Court desegregated public schools!
Last night, elaborating on his criticisms of former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Sessions made the unusual comparison of Citizens United v. FEC to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
"[Marshall] was right on Brown v. Board of Education. It's akin in my view to the Citizen's United case. The court sat down and we went back to first principles--What does the Constitution say? Everybody should be equal protection of the laws," Sessions told me after a Senate vote last night.
"Is it treating people equally to say you can go to this school because of the color of your skin and you can't?" Sessions asked rhetorically. "We've now honestly concluded and fairly concluded that it violates the equal protection clause."
How is that like Citizens United? "I think this Court, when they said 'Wait a minute! If you're talking about a precedent that says the government can deny the right to publish pamphlets, then we've got get rid of this one outlier case Austin -- 100 years of precedent -- and go back to what the Constitution [says].' I don't think that's activism."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the prohibition on direct corporate expenditures to campaigns is exactly like forcing African-Americans to endure segregation, if you are Senator Jeff Sessions.
John M
June 29, 2010 11:09 AM
Borwn vs Board of Education benefitted people. Citizens United benefited corporations to the determent of the people. Citizens United is a perfect example of the judicial activism by the conservative on the Roberts court. Sessions deries judicial activism unless it's judicial activism he agrees with. What Jeff Sessions promotes id the equivalent to passing laws which apply to Democrats but not to Republicans. He dries liberal judical activism, but cheesr conservative judicial activism.
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Ugot2bkidnme
June 29, 2010 11:12 AM
WOW!!!! I wish we could have more SCOTUS nomination hearings. Maybe we could have some even if there's no vacancy on the court. They really bring out the crazy bat-shit stuff. I realize these guys have to communicate with the base, but come on guys, there's others listening also. Do you not realize how absolutely, unequivocally insane and backward you sound.
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jdb316
June 29, 2010 12:27 PM in reply to Ugot2bkidnme
It's the Karl Rove/Lee Atwater philosophy on winning elections. There is no middle; everyone is either on your side of the fence or your opponent's side. So do what you have to do to make sure the people on your side of fence vote in larger numbers than the people on the other side.
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Ugot2bkidnme
June 29, 2010 4:47 PM in reply to jdb316
To some extent it's been successful for them I guess. It got the worst president (IMHO) in American history elected. But WTF, do they really think the American electorate is that stupid. Makes you wonder if maybe we are.
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Sniffit
June 29, 2010 11:15 AM
Simple: get the states to take away corporate personhood and refuse to honor incorporation in another state as providing personhood for foreign corporations within your state. See how the GOP's corporate brothel likes that.
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KeithL
June 29, 2010 11:35 AM
I want to see Morgan Stanley's birth certificate!
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Signalman
June 30, 2010 11:30 AM in reply to KeithL
You = rock SO hard
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Matt Jones
June 29, 2010 11:49 AM
Finally, multi-billion-dollar corporations will no longer have to endure the terrible injustice of only being able to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to party organizations. It's so terribly difficult to make sure the politician you're buying knows that the check written out to the NRSC is really for him! :)
BTW, is Sessions sure he should really be defending school desegregation? Assuming that Alabama is still a US state in 2014, he's giving some pretty nice ammo to a potential teabagger primary challenger...
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gayinmt
June 29, 2010 11:52 AM
Somebody should ask him if I, as a gay American, should have the same rights as everyone else.
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vasu
June 29, 2010 2:27 PM in reply to gayinmt
Why do you have to ask? You know what the answer will be. Just look at TX. Once one red state starts crap like this: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0621/tx-gop-platform-jail-mexicans-criminalize-sodomy-gay-marriage-felony/ all tend to follow.
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VictorLH
June 29, 2010 12:31 PM
Racist prick - this pretty much sums up the whole affair for the GOP. They are making a big deal of Marshall becasue he was black.
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thomas1
June 29, 2010 1:15 PM in reply to VictorLH
that can't be right! take it back right now!
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benintn
June 29, 2010 12:37 PM
Wow. No wonder this guy didn't get a seat on the federal bench under Ronald Reagan. Sessions is to judicial wisdom what Gomer Pyle is to military strategy.
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vasu
June 29, 2010 2:33 PM in reply to benintn
+1
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barnacle
June 29, 2010 12:42 PM
He's so stupid it's a wonder he can breathe.
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heraldsquare
June 29, 2010 2:47 PM in reply to barnacle
Idiot wind, blowing every time he moves his mouth.
blowing down the back roads, heading south.
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jeffgee
June 29, 2010 2:58 PM in reply to barnacle
If you put his brain in a bumblebee it would fly around backward
-Molly Ivins
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eratosthenes8
June 29, 2010 12:52 PM
How scary is it that this man was once nominated for a lifetime on the federal bench?
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Dadzilla
June 29, 2010 1:02 PM
I don't get it... how can you be this stupid and not drown when it rains?
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Lucieann
June 29, 2010 2:20 PM
Laughable....simply laughable!!! But predictable from the GOP especially southern one!!
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Backcountry
June 29, 2010 2:38 PM
He's not just a Keebler Elf, he's an ignorant elf at that.
It's amazing that he has enough sense to find his way to the Capitol, let alone speak with any authority on judicial matters.
But I think he should keep getting all the air time he wants. Maybe he can run as Palin's veep in 2012. They'd make a great team. Their IQs are within 10 points of one another, neither more than 70, I'd say.
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ru4862
June 29, 2010 2:40 PM
Sessions is a racist and he doesn't hide it
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Bama Belle
June 29, 2010 3:01 PM in reply to ru4862
I don't think he's racist, per se...he (and the rest of the modern day GOP) dislikes all people who are not of use to him (i.e., all poor and middle class people). His comment makes perfect sense when you consider that the modern GOP considers corporations/money to be as or more important than actual people.
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toddincabo
June 29, 2010 2:43 PM
An embarrassment to the human race
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aq
June 29, 2010 2:49 PM
Sure is a modern day brown vs board... Gives those repressed corporate persons full rights as any other marginalized member of society.
Sessions is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. It's exactly like Brown vs Board except that, like, you know, corporations aren't people, and discrimination should exist.
I find it absolutely amazing how hard it is to get competitive bids in the government, how hard it is to police corporations, how hard it is to get corporate (and union, et al) lobbyists out of government.
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Mom, Esq.
June 29, 2010 2:49 PM
Apparently "activist" justices are bad, while "assertive" justices are good, that is if they're expanding corporations' rights to throw money into politics, and striking down rational gun control laws.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/us/30scotus.html?hp
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hollywood
June 29, 2010 2:58 PM
I am just about speechless. How god damned stupid and cynical and ignorant can you get?
Well if you are a Rethuglican I guess you just feel so bad for corporations these days it reminds you of the bigotry and misery of segregation.
Ok actually I am kind of scared now because I really didn't think these guys were that sick and that stupid and now I have to process how America is the Empire of Assholes one more time ..... on an even lower level ..... can it get worse???
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EnnuiDivine
June 29, 2010 3:07 PM
Hell, it's a bad day when I start agreeing with something Jeff Sessions says. "Everybody should be equal protection of the laws".
Poorly worded, but brilliant. Every body should have equal protection of the laws. Since corporations are an abstract concept and not a single, tangible, living, breathing person...they are entitled to shit. I can only assume Sessions will be this eager to support a Supreme Court ruling determining DOMA to be unconstitutional...
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Max Thrax
June 29, 2010 3:12 PM
Just now on CNN Rick Sanchez said, and I'm not really paraphrasing: 'Does Elena Kagan hate the military? We'll let you do the research and make up your own mind'.
I laughed but I should have cried.
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SchoolyT
June 29, 2010 3:21 PM
How Brown and CU are substantively similar - legally, historically, contextually, or ??? - completely escapes me. The only similarity I can fathom is that they ended up in the same courtroom albeit at different times.
And this guy is a lawyer? Really? He couldn't pay me to represent me if that is any indication of his mad legal skillz.
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know_your_unknowns
June 29, 2010 5:33 PM
Alabama, you need to find wherever it is in your state where the passage to hell is and seal it up so people like Sessions can't crawl up out of it anymore.
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Backcountry
June 29, 2010 8:32 PM in reply to know_your_unknowns
Alabama IS the passage to hell.
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roxsteady
June 29, 2010 6:09 PM
This guy is exactly what Olbermann called him. The Keebler Elf. This little prick couldn't get through the hearings at his own confirmation as a State Supreme Court Judge, due to his vile racism so it's clearly eating him up that TWO WOMEN, have leaped over his ass and are now looking down on him. Just as it should be.
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