Feminist Looking Glass

Almost all progressives think that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Citizens United v. FEC will open the floodgates to corporate domination of elections.  (For some opinion that it is not as catastrophic as it seems, see this from the National Law Journal and this from the Daily Kos.)   But the good thing is that Congress seems to be taking some quick action to lessen the impact of the decision.

The Sunlight Foundation has compiled a list of the proposals that have already been introduced in Congress since the decision.  It shows quick work in such a short time.  But one proposal that has not yet been introduced is one from Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayres (Yale law professors who have written Voting With Dollars: A New Paradigm for Campaign Finance Reform) that seems to have as much potential as any measure for lessening the impact of the decision.   Their proposal is to ban all corporations that do business with the federal government (i.e., federal contractors) from endorsing or opposing a candidate for public office.  This would have a great impact since a 2008 Government Accountability Office study found that almost three-quarters of the largest 100 publicly traded firms are federal contractors.  If a ban was in place, those corporations would have to choose whether to throw money into the endorsement of, or opposition to, candidates, or end their federal contracts.  The authors think, and I agree, that it would be likely that many of them would choose to keep their federal contracts rather than endorse candidates.

Filed under: Law Tagged: | Bruce Ackerman, Citizens United, Ian Ayres