• I do have to fish or cut bait, just for my own personal peace of mind and also in fairness to the process. The president and the Senate need plenty of time to fill a vacancy.
• Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens • Regarding his pending decision on whether or not to stay a justice. Dude’s not only the most liberal justice (despite getting the nod from president Gerald Ford), but at 89 (90 on April 20) he’s also the second-oldest and fourth-longest-serving in the court’s history. Obama likely wants to replace him soon because he represents one of the four liberal-leaning votes on the court, and he doesn’t have many years left in him. source

• cause Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church,
  which has made it a mission of
  theirs to protest soldiers’ funerals,
  was sued in 2006 after they
  protested the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder.
• issues The corresponding issues of
  free expression and right to dissent meet with the conflicting issue of
  privacy in this case, which could
  set a pretty huge precedent for
  protesters. source

• The government has spent a decade arguing that our clients cannot advocate for peace, cannot inform about international human rights.
• Georgetown law professor David D. Cole • Arguing in favor of the Humanitarian Law Project, which wants to provide support to peaceful efforts made by organizations the U.S. classifies as terrorist groups. This is a tough one, as moderate justice Antony Kennedy noted, and it ought to make things fun for the Supreme Court, which has to decide the case. Solicitor General Elena Kagan noted that the law was in place as a deterrent: “What Congress decided was when you help Hezbollah build homes, you are also helping Hezbollah build bombs. That’s the entire theory behind this statute, and it’s a reasonable theory.” source

• Yeah, this is pretty cheeky. But Murray Hill, Inc. is really running for Congress in the Maryland 8th District. They even have the kind of press release that should be studied by people who write press releases. “We want to get in on the ground floor of the democracy market before the whole store is bought by China,” they write. We hope they win so the Supreme Court is forced to reconsider its decision about giving corporations the same rights as people. source

• The last thing we need to do is hand more influence to the lobbyists in Washington, or more power to the special interests to tip the outcome of elections.
• President Barack Obama • In his weekly radio address, where he assailed the recent Supreme Court decision on campaign financing. Obama himself made a stronger pledge for transparency and pointed out that his administration has made strides to run a clean ship. He also pledges that “it will be a priority for us until we repair the damage that has been done.” In other words, the Supreme Court totally failed. source

• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is an important case. This may be one of the most important cases that we see in our lifetimes, because it’ll have a direct effect on who gets elected, what laws get passed, and who can say what during an election. It’s such an important case that the dissenting opinion is as important as the decision itself. So, here goes.

The case at hand:

• It was about a movie that trashed Hillary Clinton. The producers of “Hillary the Movie,” which was designed by a highly-funded conservative nonprofit political organization to smear the then-presidential candidate, wanted to show the film during the 2008 primaries, but couldn’t because of campaign finance laws (most notably, one passed by John McCain and Russ Feingold back in 2002). Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission had a narrow scope, and dealt with a small part of campaign finance law.

Key points in campaign finance reform:

• 1971 The Federal Election Campaign Act passes, requiring campaigns to report hard-money contributors to their campaigns, but leaving the door for “soft money” contributions wide open.
• 1990 Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce was decided by the Supreme Court, a key decision which upheld the longstanding restriction on corporate speech that could influence elections.
• 2002 The McCain-Feingold Act passed, which limited so-called “soft money” contributions and limited the broadcast of corporate and non-profit political messages near elections, passes.

Main points of the majority opinion:

• Chilling political speech Anthony Kennedy’s opinion argues that the “speech that is central to the meaning and purpose of the First Amendment” is getting frozen with current campaign finance laws, despite their good intentions.
• Broad, not narrow Instead of focusing on the narrow view of Citizens United, the court decided to widely interpret the law, rendering nearly 100 years of campaign finance laws and judicial rulings useless.
• Corporate ad crazy The court decided to overturn some of the most important elements of Austin and McCain-Feingold, so now we can be barraged with annoying political ads all the way up to election day!

Why John Paul Stevens is awesome:

• 89the age of John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court’s oldest justice and also its most liberal
• 90 number of pages of pure, unadulterated dissent from Johnny boy; not bad bro source

The main point of his (mostly) dissenting opinion:

• The Court’s ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. The path it has taken to reach its outcome will, I fear, do damage to this institution.
• John Paul Stevens • In his lengthy, massive dissenting opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, probably the most dramatic decision the court has made in at least a decade, due to the impact it has on the electoral process. He apologizes for the length for the document before leaping in. But he really had to. This thing is huge – it’s nearly twice the size of the opinion it refutes. source

What does all this mean for you, ShortFormBlog fan?

• one Corporate influence is once again going to be a major factor in political campaigns. And they won’t have any limits on their speech.
• two You’re going see more ads on TV in the days leading up to major elections. The ads could be from corporations or nonprofits.
• three If Fred Thompson runs for president again, TNT can air repeats of his episodes of “Law and Order” all the way up until election day. source

• 5-4 douches beat cool people once again source

• Everything about the Supreme Court’s decision to stay the broadcast (and the Proposition 8 camp’s request to black out the trial in the first place) betrays a deep ambivalence about the same humble American voter whose very rights the court purports to be defending.
• Slate writer Dahlia Lithwick • Discussing the Supreme Court’s decision to ban cameras during the Proposition 8 gay marriage trial in California. Lithwick claims the trial itself is somewhat questionable, but the banning of cameras in the courtroom is beyond absurd and is completely disrespectful to the rights of the American public. She further explains: “As it explains in its order: ‘This case, too, involves issues subject to intense debate in our society’ and it ‘is therefore not a good one for a pilot program.’ So, um, we the people are only fit to watch low-profile, boring cases?” source