Add new comment

Dear Chris: Thank you very much for taking the time to write in about this. I often consider myself a conservative in the sense of wanting to preserve the Bill of Rights for people as with my work on the Fourth Amendment with my conservative and libertarian friends like Congressman Bob Barr. At the same time, having tracked these justices for many years I can only say that there is a strong ideology of the so-called Federalist Society (and actually whose view are mostly the opposite of the actual historical federalists) that has taken root among the Republican appointees to the federal courts. During President Bush's first term more than half of all of his appellate nominees were active in the Federalist Society, which purports to be a debating society and in fact is much more than that--laying down the architecture for a far-reaching "legal" revolution that is embraced as a policy matter by their political counter-parts. This legal revolution has found its "greatest" expression in this radical decision of the Supreme Court. As a devoted student of the writings of the Founders, I am certain most of them would shocked, appalled and fearful of what these guys have wrought. I am certainly hoping that conservatives like will joint progressives and libertarians and others in saying no to this judicial activism and restore the power of individuals in our democracy. This ideology of corporate rights has unfortunately found its home among Rs appointed to the bench. While there are most certainly Ds who have been elected who are too beholden to corporate donations, as with many Rs, within the federal judiciary those who are pushing this agenda are appointees of Reagan, Bush, and Bush almost exclusively. Certainly that is the case on the Supreme Court with all of the justices hand-picked by these presidents, all of whom have been active in the Federalist Society, issuing one of the most radical decision in U.S. history. And, while the idea of limiting ads in the months before an election may have some appeal, it will not fix the underlying problems with this edict or addressing the far-reaching implications of the court's analytical framework granting corporations inherent "rights." I agree--it's not conservative. Those who are truly conservative will be outraged by such activism by unelected judges displacing the people's will with their own narrow agenda.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.