This commentary is by John Bossange of Burlington, a retired middle school principal who now volunteers on a number of nonprofit boards in the Burlington area.
I wonder if any of the Supreme Court justices who voted in the affirmative for Citizens United and Shelby County now have any reservations.
As the impact of the decisions in Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission combined with Shelby County v. Holder have become past practice and settled law, those rulings may have forever changed how we elect our representatives and eventually be the reason democracy does not survive in America.
Absent term limits for congressional representatives and senators, the political creation of many gerrymandered districts, and no possibility of campaign finance reform, members of Congress have now become lifetime employees in the House and Senate.
Citizens United permits unlimited contributions to political action committees that support unions, associations and corporations and these organizations can fully fund a campaign and support a representative in office. Candidates now have the ability to “electioneer and election,” covered by the free speech clause in the First Amendment. The longer a representative chooses to remain in office, the more money they can bank using their PACS and the more messaging they can give their district or state. Tragically, incumbency has become the standard.
We see the danger of lifetime members in Congress played out every day. The bad blood, grievances and grudges built up over the decades between the leaders of both parties are now the new normal. With no turnover or new voices of reason, polarization continues to grow and gridlock now defines the culture in D.C.
Because of Citizens United, the money needed to remain in power is more secure than ever. And who would want to leave such a cushy job with so much power and status that comes with free, single-payer health care, a good salary with a living allowance, a pension and benefits for life, and connections with the lobbyists and donors on K Street ready to employ you if you decided to leave?
Unfortunately, the ability to legislate and govern, the hallmark of democracy, has ground to a halt, and the lack of campaign finance reform because of this court decision is the primary reason why.
The second bullet into the heart of our democracy was decided three years later in the 2013 ruling to undo the 1965 Voting Right Act, which, when passed, enhanced the 15th Amendment. The decision in Shelby County v. Holder took away the requirement for states to get preclearance from the federal government before any changes could be made om a state’s voting rules and election process.
Convinced that there was no longer any need for federal oversight, justices again voted to abandon the need to monitor the shameless practices of state voter suppression laws dating back to the Black Codes and the era of Jim Crow. Given the long and tragic history of racism and state’s rights, justices never should have assumed the nation was fully healed from these two national epidemics left to us from our Founding Fathers.
With that door now reopened, many states have passed laws restricting polling places, eliminated early voting, purged voter registration rolls, reduced mail-in and absentee ballots and have begun requiring voter identification.
The “Big Lie” of the 2020 election, promoted by Mr. Trump, is feeding off this court decision today, in hopes of reducing the number of citizens who might vote against a Republican candidate. States are not only passing voter restriction and suppression laws, but more importantly they are empowering their courts to control the ballot-counting process and, if desired, the final results of an election.
I’m sure the five justices who supported these two landmark decisions are just like the rest of us, and were not aware of the unintended consequences of their actions. But America deserved much more foresight from these constitutional scholars. How could they not have seen the tragic road map created by these two decisions?
Citizens United and Shelby County have been a one-two punch into the gut of democracy. America is now in a downward spiral, spinning us away from the fragile, imperfect, yet time-honored past practices protecting voting rights and our election process.
Again, I wonder if the five justices in each case are having any second thoughts. How could they not have seen how each decision would become a powerful political tool to legally control who votes, how, where, and when, and equally important, who gets elected and remains in office? That’s not how a democracy works, and worse, that’s not how it will survive in America.
Taken together, both court decisions have made the civic responsibility to vote less inspirational and impactful while at the same time making it more frustrating and futile. That’s the recipe for a dark road ahead.
