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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJustice Stevens: Pres. Obama's SOTU Criticism of the Court's Citizens United Decision Not a 'Lie'
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens addresses the American Law Institute's annual meeting at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / May 21, 2012)
Justice Stevens: Obama right to criticize court ruling on campaign spending
WASHINGTON President Obama ruffled some feathers two years ago when he lambasted the Supreme Court for its Citizens United decision during a State of the Union speech. It was unusual for a president to criticize the justices as they sat before him.
Now, retired Justice John Paul Stevens has taken the equally unusual step of saying the president was right in challenging the courts opinion.
Obama said the 5-4 ruling freeing corporations to spend unlimited sums on elections reversed a century of law, adding it would open the floodgates for special interests including foreign corporations to spend without limit in our elections.
In that succinct comment, the former professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago made three important and accurate observations about the Supreme Court majoritys opinion, Stevens said in a speech Wednesday evening. First, it did reverse a century of law; second, it did authorize unlimited election-related expenditures by Americas most powerful interests; and, third, the logic of the opinion extends to money spent by foreign entities.
Stevens dissented from the 2010 decision, and he said again Wednesday that he could not understand why, if corporations have no right to vote, they should have the right to sway elections.
The justice also said he did not see why those with the most money should be permitted to dominate the airwaves during election campaigns. During the televised debates among the Republican candidates for the presidency, the moderators made an effort to allow each speaker an equal opportunity to express his or her views, he said, speaking in Little Rock, Ark. If there were six candidates, he said, they were given roughly the same amount of time to speak.
Both the candidates and the audience would surely have thought the value of the debate to have suffered if the moderator had allocated the time on the basis of the speakers wealth, or it they had held an auction allowing the most time to the highest bidder, Stevens said.
read: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-justice-stevens-obama-right-on-campaign-spending-ruling-20120530,0,7395653.story
President Obama at Medal of Freedom ceremony:
"Even in his final days on the bench, Justice Stevens insisted he was still learning on the job. But in the end, we are the ones who have learned from him."
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)is a wimp:
Could he have fired a more direct, but non-offensive, shot across the gang of 5's bow with the looming ACA Decision coming ... a decision that commentators have already said will pit ideology vs. pragmatism ... and oh yeah, case law?
In my view, that takes guts.
bigtree
(85,986 posts)This President is bold enough to make direct assaults on many planks of republican nonsense and abuses using language and political levers which previous Democratic presidents have shied away from. What's interesting is that we haven't yet seen this President 'blow his top' and I think that just leaves almost infinite room for his brand of audaciousness. We ain't seen nothing yet.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Many confuse bluster for effective tact. This President says exactly what he means, in a well thought out manner, to express what he wants, even when speaking on his feet.
But that said ... I don't think "WE" will ever see him "blow his top", but I suspect Boehner, cantor, Reed and Pelosi have seen him be VERY forceful and explicit as to his wishes.
Ship of Fools
(1,453 posts)to a journalist's question -- does the pres. ever get angry?
Gibbs looked down, had a far-away look in his eyes, and said
"Oh, yeah, he gets angry..."
As pissed off as I get these days and as fretful as I get about what
the pres. sometimes does/doesn't do or say, my husband, who is a
reformed Republican (almost to the left of me), reminds me that
"Obama is EXACTLY who we need leading this country right now."
I don't think I could say it any better. Screw the podium-pounding
blowhards. I'll take pragmatism (along with his wonderful smile
over an off-the-cuff joke) over podium-pounding drama queens
every single time. That's my prez!
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid