Law Professor: Citizens United Case Could Cause a 'Stampede' of Attack Ads
February 22, 2010
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In an op-ed in the Feb. 22 edition of The National Law Journal, University of Baltimore School of Law Professor Christopher J. Peters criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Citizens United v. FEC decision as a misuse of the "marketplace of ideas" analogy for American democracy.
The decision—widely discussed in the media and even mentioned by President Obama during last month's State of the Union address—applied the First Amendment to invalidate long-standing bans on corporate political spending.
Peters notes that in past decisions, the Court has invoked the "marketplace of ideas" metaphor to promote traditional democratic values.
"The Citizens United majority, however, employed the metaphor to strikingly different ends," Peters writes. "The Court concluded that the democratic process is best served not by promoting free and fair participation by all citizens, but by allowing for-profit corporations—legally created entities that don't even qualify as real people, much less citizens—to amass disproportionate concentrations of political power."
Read Peters's article here.