McCain-Feingold Overturned

February 11, 2010  
Filed under News

By: Alec Braun

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission could be one of the most controversial decisions made by the Supreme Court in years. The landmark decision was decided with a 5-4 vote in favor of unlimited amounts of corporate funding in political elections. The court ruled that the previous act, known as the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 was in violation of both corporations’ and unions’ freedom of speech from the Constitutional First Amendment. The previous law regulated the amount of contributions you could give to candidates during election. When the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling was decided, the Supreme Court gave corporations and unions the right to promote a candidate over another and allowed them to give as much funding as they please.

Mitch McConnell who argued in favor of the Supreme Courts’ decision said that, “Our democracy depends upon free speech, not just for some but for all.” While Senator McCain who sponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act; which revised the limit of funding for, sponsored candidates, believes that “campaign finance reform is dead.”

This decision could possibly decide who our future Congressmen or President will be all due to the amount of funding they receive, which is why this ruling is believed to be, one of the most controversial decisions in the Supreme Court in years.

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