An Amendment to Cut Political Cash

September 25th, 2014- The Constitution

 

Recently the Supreme Court has unleashed several millions of dollars in order to fund midterm elections. However, the Senate is trying to vote against the Supreme Court's control over government funds. So far about 48 Democratic senators are on board, and move to "to restore congressional control to campaign spending". Nonetheless, the Supreme Court states that spending over "$189 million so far" is fine because "spending money on politics is a form of free speech, and is thus deserving of constitutional protection". Hence the Senate contains limited power in the battle for the all mighty dollar. In addition to limited power, Congress is allowed to influence and guide on public financing; the only stipulation is if the Supreme Court will follow. In total this amendment must have the ability to change the structure of the Supreme Court, or nothing will change.

 

I think this topic fits with Chapter 2 because it threatens the legitimacy of the Constitution. The structure of the Supreme Court is deemed to follow strict rules that Congress has set in place. But this article shows that the Supreme Court is doing what it wants to do, without hearing from Congress. And another aspect of this is the idea that public spending is protected by the 1st amendment; The 1st amendment supports freedom of speech, and prohibits Congress from making laws against it. But, I feel that the Supreme Court is a little too comfortable in their ability to spend money. I find it alarming that the money spent this year for midterm elections is about 3x the amount spent in 2010. This questions the integrity of our government as well as expressing the division of views  in America. If we cannot unite as a country and work towards fixing the current problems, then how will we survive?

                                                                Works cited
"An Amendment to Cut Political Cash." NY Times. © 2014 The New York Times Company, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/opinion/an-amendment-to-cut-political-cash.html>.