I wonder what the odds are of something like this passing:
As the Supreme Court returns today for its new term, a bipartisan group of law professors and prominent attorneys, including seven former state attorneys general, issued a letter criticizing the Court’s ruling in January in Citizens United v. FEC, which equated corporate spending in elections with free speech rights, and calling on Congress to consider a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision.
Free Speech for People and People For the American Way announced the release of the letter, which was signed by more than fifty leading law professors and attorneys, including former Massachusetts Attorneys General Frank Bellotti and Scott Harshbarger; former Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore; former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods; leading constitutional scholars; and numerous former federal and state prosecutors from across the country.
Constitutional amendment? Not going to happen.
But congress COULD, if it WANTED, put a great big spike in the Citizen’s United result.
How? Just pass a law giving all shareholders the right to sue companies for malfeasance, using company funds for political advertising. And not just for normal “damages”, but (like for copyright) a certain amount per share per infringement.
I fear that (most of) congress is quite happy with things just as they are, and would not disturb the goose that lays the golden eggs.