More precisely it was a celebration of the one year anniversary of the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. And that celebration was on January 11, 2011, but somehow I missed it. More importantly, what I either missed or completely failed to remember who was celebrating.
Was anything else going on at that time that would have overshadowed that information? There was the Republican takeover of the House. That could have been it. Or the election results in general. More specifically the results in California. The odious Daryl Issa won, again, but overall the results in California were good that year. As they had been in 2009 with the exception of Proposition (H)8. So wrong for same-sex couples that asked for nothing more than the equal right to marry. Yet another misguided Proposition that California voters got wrong.
We didn’t always used to approve bad Propositions – but Proposition 13 back in 1978 tilted in favor of the those that are whiter and wealthier, but thankfully efforts to restrict access to abortion have failed three times. Lawsuits always follow with the passage of Propositions that are contentious or are not in the interests of corporations. Prop (H)8 was in the first category and the several lawsuits quickly began. It was the one filed May 22, 2009 that garnered the most attention and media and blog coverage was Perry v. Schwarzenneger, in part because it was filed in Federal Court and in part because of those that initiated the lawsuit, American Foundation for Equal Rights and the hiring of the unlikely duo of David Boise and Theodore Olson, known for being on opposite sides in Bush v. Gore, to take it on.
The District Court had ruled that the proposition was unconstitutional on August 4, 2010. Then the challenges, including stays, began. On January 4, 2011 it was bounced over to the California Supreme Court. So, it was on January 11, 2011 (and still is) a hot issue. However, amidst all the cheering for the attorneys and angst over the latest decision to come, how could that little celebration for Citizens United have gone so unnoticed?
If history is any guide, the prospects in the Supreme Court look good for the Prop 8 plaintiffs. Ted Olson does well with the US Supreme Court. He was the lead attorney in the two most important and worst decisions the court has rendered in the past few decades: Bush v. Gore and Citizens United. And on January 11, 2011 he celebrated the one year anniversary of the latter
One year ago today, the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. It upheld the First Amendment rights of individuals acting through corporations and labor unions to participate in our political process, and it struck down an oppressive thicket of statutes restricting – and even criminalizing – their political speech.
Send a thank you note to Teddy for the mess that his win dumped onto the IRS. Because our political system really needed a plethora of new 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations to funnel in more secret campaign money.