{"id":9559,"date":"2012-11-21T08:52:12","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T16:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=9559"},"modified":"2012-11-21T08:52:12","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T16:52:12","slug":"the-worst-place-for-koch-suckers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/21\/the-worst-place-for-koch-suckers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Worst Place for Koch Suckers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fascist five activist Republican Injustices on the Supreme Court are the willing Pawns of plutocratic billionaires like the Koch Brothers, as evidenced by the worst decision since Dred Scott<\/em>, Citizens United<\/em>.  Here we have an opportunity to see just how twisted their rationale for misinterpreting the Constitution has become.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"21KochSuckers\"Last week, Justice Samuel Alito Jr. speciously defended the Supreme Court\u2019s disastrous ruling in the 2010 Citizens United<\/a> case by arguing that the ruling, which allowed unlimited independent campaign spending by corporations and unions, was not really groundbreaking at all. In fact, he said, all it did was reaffirm that corporations have free speech rights and that, without such rights, newspapers would have lost the major press freedom rulings that allowed<\/a> the publication of the Pentagon Papers and made it easier for newspapers to defend themselves against libel suits in New York Times v. Sullivan<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is whether speech that goes to the very heart of government should be limited to certain preferred corporations; namely, media corporations<\/strong>,\u201d he said [Faux Noise delinked] in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative group. \u201cSurely the idea that the First Amendment protects only certain privileged voices should be disturbing to anybody who believes in free speech<\/strong>.\u201d <\/p>\n

But Justice Alito\u2019s argument wrongly confuses the matter. It is not the corporate structure of media companies that makes them deserving of constitutional protection. It is their function \u2014 the vital role that the press plays in American democracy \u2014 that sets them apart<\/strong>. In Citizens United, by a 5-to-4 vote, the court ruled that the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, in limiting the amount that organizations could spend, severely restricted First Amendment rights. The law\u2019s purpose and effect, according to the court, was to keep unions and most corporations from conveying facts and opinions to the public, though it exempted media corporations<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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

Photo credit: What on Earth<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n

The article\u2019s author is absolutely correct that it is the function of media that sets them apart, but Alito, pictured above with the other two Injustices that associate openly with the Koch Brothers, ignored something even more basic.<\/font><\/p>\n

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United Stats<\/a>:<\/font><\/p>\n

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press<\/strong>; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Although Alito interpreted freedom of the press as a part of the freedom of speech, the Constitution clearly defines freedom of the press as an altogether separate right.  If that is apparent to a legal neophyte like me, it is obvious that Alito and the others had to know it.  Therefore, they intentionally ignored the Constitution in an attempt to help plutocrats and their Republican lackeys take control of our nation.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court is the worst place for Koch suckers, because\u2026<\/font><\/p>\n

Corporations are NOT people!<\/font><\/h1>\n

Money is NOT speech!<\/font><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fascist five activist Republican Injustices on the Supreme Court are the willing Pawns of plutocratic billionaires like the Koch Brothers, as evidenced by the worst decision since Dred Scott, Citizens United.  Here we have an opportunity to see just how twisted their rationale for misinterpreting the Constitution has become. Last week, Justice Samuel Alito […]<\/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-9559","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\/9559","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=9559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}