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Campaign finance rulings contributed $1.3 billion, nearly half of the spending in the 2016 presidential election

How SCOTUS Campaign Finance Rulings [...]

The Supreme Court of the United States. (Photo by Matt Wade/ flickr CC 2.0)

This post originally appeared at Common Dreams.

With the pending confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch shaping up to be a referendum on the role of money in politics, a new study published on Tuesday highlights the actual impact of campaign finance rulings on the 2016 election.

Published by public policy organization Demos, Court Cash: 2016 Election Money Resulting Directly from Supreme Court Rulings quantifies for the first time the direct impact of the Supreme Courts four most significant money-in-politics cases, using the highly competitive presidential race as well as the 22 congressional races won by 5 percentage points or fewer as the studys focal point.

According to the report, the Supreme Courts rulings led to more than $1.3 billion in spending on the 2016 presidential election, which is equivalent to 49 percent of the total cost.

According to the report, the Supreme Courts rulings inBuckley v. Valeo,Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. FEC (1996) and Citizens United v. FEC(2010) led to more than $1.3 billion in spending on the 2016 presidential election, which is equivalent to 49 percent of the total cost.

The same rulings led to 77 percent, or $649 million, of spending in competitive congressional races.

In addition, the study notes, 2014sMcCutcheon v. FECallowed 1724 wealthy donors to contribute $274 million in McCutcheonMoney in 2016 money that went beyond what would have been permitted by the previous aggregate contribution limit. The average contribution from these elite donors was more than five times the median annual household income in the US.

Lead author Adam Lioz, counsel with Demos Policy and Outreach, wroteTuesday that the study demonstrates the profound impact offour decades of flawed Supreme Court rulingson the role of money in American politics.

Bystriking basic protectionsagainst big money dominating our elections, he continued, the Supreme Court has shifted the balance of powertoward the wealthy and special interests and away from ordinary Americans.

The study is especially timely as it comes just days before the US Senate begins confirmation hearings for President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee. Opponents areraising alarmover Gorsuchs troubling money-in-politics record, as more than 120 groups warned in a letter to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Writing forSalonon Tuesday, Lioz and report co-authors Sean McElwee and Juhem Navarro-Riveraexplainedhow, taken together, these decisions quite literally transformed the American political system.

They wrote:

In theBuckleycase, the Supreme Court addressed Congress post-Watergate reforms, dramatically changing the legal landscape surrounding money in politics. The court upheld contribution limits (money given to candidates), disclosure requirements and a system providing public funding for presidential candidates, but struck down several key protections against big money: limits on self-funding, spending by candidates and independent expenditures on behalf of candidates.

Twenty years later, the court built upon that decision inColorado Republican I, which eliminated limits on party expenditures for or against candidates. Most infamously, in 2010sCitizens United, the court allowed corporations to spend directly on elections. Another result of that case (through a DC Circuit Court opinion that closely followed its logic) was the rise of Super PACs political action committees that do not make direct contributions to candidates or parties but can accept unlimited contributions from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals, and spend unlimited money flooding our airwaves with ads favoring or opposing candidates. More recently, inMcCutcheon, the court struck down the aggregate limits on how much wealthy individuals could give to all federal candidates, parties and PACs combined.

Highlighting previous Demos research, the authors further note that large donors are disproportionately wealthy, white, male and conservative, and are generally more supportive of domestic spending cuts, more likely to oppose taking action to mitigate climate change and less supportive of the Affordable Care Act.

Thus, they observe that [t]he Supreme Courts decisions have empowered wealthy, white conservative men, distorting democracy.

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See the article here:
How SCOTUS Campaign Finance Rulings 'Distorted' US Democracy - BillMoyers.com