{"id":1797,"date":"2010-06-09T03:29:19","date_gmt":"2010-06-09T10:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=1797"},"modified":"2010-06-09T03:29:19","modified_gmt":"2010-06-09T10:29:19","slug":"the-ethics-of-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/09\/the-ethics-of-injustice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ethics of Injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rabid kangaroos on the US Extreme court have done it again, showing shocking preference for the rich over ordinary Americans.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"SCOTUS2\"<\/a> In a burst of judicial activism, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upended the gubernatorial race in Arizona, cutting off matching funds to candidates participating in the state\u2019s public campaign finance system<\/strong>. Suddenly, three candidates, including Gov. Jan Brewer, can no longer receive public funds they had counted on to run against a free-spending wealthy opponent<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The court\u2019s reckless order<\/a> muscling into the race was terse and did not say whether there were any dissents, though it is hard to imagine there were not. An opinion explaining its reasoning will have to wait until the next term, assuming it takes the case, but by that time the state\u2019s general election will be over and its model campaign finance system substantially demolished<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

It seems likely that the Roberts court will use this case to continue its destruction of the laws and systems set up in recent decades to reduce the influence of big money in politics<\/strong>. By the time it is finished, millionaires and corporations will have regained an enormous voice in American politics, at the expense of candidates who have to raise money the old-fashioned way and, ultimately, at the expense of voters. <\/p>\n

Arizona\u2019s clean elections program<\/a> was established by the state\u2019s voters in 1998 after a series of scandals provided clear illustrations of money\u2019s corrupting influence. In particular, the program was prompted by the AzScam scandal of 1991, in which many state legislators were recorded accepting contributions and bribes in exchange for approval of gambling legislation. <\/p>\n

The system gives qualifying candidates a lump-sum grant for their primary or general election races in exchange for which the candidates agree not to raise large private contributions<\/strong>. If an opposing candidate is not participating in the system and spends more than the lump-sum grant, the participating candidate qualifies for additional matching funds<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

It was those matching funds that produced a challenge from well-financed candidates, backed by the Goldwater Institute [plutocons delinked] and other conservative interests. The candidates argued that the matching funds \u201cchilled\u201d their freedom of speech because they were afraid to spend more than the limit that triggered the funds<\/strong>. A lower court agreed with that pretzel logic, but last month a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disagreed.<\/a> It said the speech of the plaintiffs had not been chilled. \u201cThe essence of this claim is not that they have been silenced,\u201d the panel said, \u201cbut that the speech of their opponents has been enabled.\u201d <\/p>\n

In 2008, the Supreme Court eliminated<\/a> the Millionaires\u2019 Amendment, which let Congressional candidates raise more money when running against candidates who pay for their own campaigns. In January, in the Citizens United case<\/a>, the court eliminated limits to campaign spending by corporations. Both cases cited the First Amendment rights of the wealthy, and in that depressing sequence, state finance programs would be the court\u2019s next conquest\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the ethical dilemma.  The Roberts Court has broken a number of precedents with this order that is clearly unjust.  At the same time, it\u2019s hard to oppose anything that hurts the political aspirations of Jan \u201cpapers please Jose\u201d Brewer and her bigoted policies.<\/font><\/p>\n

What is the right thing to do when an injustice harms an enemy.  Do we speak out, or do we remain silent?  After some deep thinking, I say we speak out.  Injustice is injustice, regardless of whom it harms.  Remaining silent in the face of injustice anywhere, invites it everywhere.  Therefore we must support fairness for society\u2019s most despised members.  How else will people know we aren\u2019t right wingers?<\/font><\/p>\n

Corporations are NOT people!  Money is NOT speech!<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rabid kangaroos on the US Extreme court have done it again, showing shocking preference for the rich over ordinary Americans. In a burst of judicial activism, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upended the gubernatorial race in Arizona, cutting off matching funds to candidates participating in the state\u2019s public campaign finance system. Suddenly, three candidates, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}