http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Tucker/Morning%20Edition%2005-23-2012.mp3
Connecticut has signed on with 21 other states in supporting Montana's campaign finance laws. That state is being accused of circumventing the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision.
The Citizens United decision removed the federal ban on corporate campaign spending. Montana law requires a corporation to register a political action committee and make independent expenditures from a voluntary, segregated fund. In the case ATM v. Bullock, advocates of Citizens United say this is a clear violation of the Supreme Court ruling.
The State Supreme Court disagreed, and in a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, contends that Citizens United doesn't apply to Montana's campaign finance laws. Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen signed onto the brief with 21 other states.
"The Citizens United decision dealt with the federal sphere (presidential elections, congressional and U.S Senate elections). It did not deal within the context of state elections. The Montana law deals with the corporate expenditures in the context of state and local elections."
Jepsen says he hopes the Montana case will cause the Supreme Court to take a second look at Citizens United, and overturn their 2010 ruling.
"A single person can have more of an impact on a race, a corporation can have more of an impact on a race than millions of individual small donors." The Court should realize "how wrongheaded Citizens United was."
"Keep in mind, it overturned a hundred years of precedent."
