Comparison of the SCOTUS decisions on Dred Scott, Citizens United and the monumental effect upon America

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Written by ray   
Saturday, 23 June 2012 08:40

Comparison of the SCOTUS decisions on Dred Scott, Citizens United and the monumental effect upon America.


The Citizens United decision by the Roberts SCOTUS is a major culture shocking event. It is on a level like the Dred Scott SCOTUS decision in 1867. That decision changed the United States forever and was a principal contributing cause of the Civil War. The Taney Supreme Court ( also a court dominated by monied interests) held 7 to 2 that blacks were not Americans, had no vote, no legal rights, and that they were property to be owned and held as slaves. That was the Supreme Court! The north United States and others who believed in ending slavery were incensed and the country was ready to explode. Most of the famous Lincoln/ Douglas debates were over this topic and that SCOTUS decision. Lincoln was elected and the country went to civil war.

That Taney court decided that certain people (blacks) were property. The current Robert’s court has held the equally outlandish decision that certain properties (corporations) are people. Looking at what happened as a result of the Dred Scott decision and comparing it to the the recent Citizens United decision it is again a monumental broad reaching decision from a monied, corporate, ill- influenced court.

The bizarre rule by the Roberts court called Citizens United has declared into law that non-human corporations are “people” with rights and can participate in giving opinions to the electorate. Those opinions are in the form of money—money is declared an opinion. Somehow this is further expanded to allow unlimited and secret donations. So far in this election cycle that is already amounting to conservative’s promise of donating a billion dollars; or what ever it takes to defeat the “liberals”. These great sums of money are being donated only by a small handful of mega-wealthy billionaires. This small group of super rich certainly expect a return on there money and that is to control greater and greater power and influence in this country.

As SCOTUS (really the SCOTUS 5) has declared that corporations are people and that they can provide unlimited, secret millions and even billions of dollars that are their “opinions”. Who will stop it there? If corps. are people then it follows that they have rights, ie. opinions, then will they be determined to have the right to vote? So will it be that these corps. who are people have the right to vote and that all American corps. have a vote. And since corps.are simply created, even as shells, can’t there be and unlimited number of corps. all created by the same powerful super-rich people corps. Would this mean that they can generate artificial giant populations of voting corps who along with their unlimited funds will acquire absolute control of any election thus making elections obsolete and instead an all powerful oligarchy.

This may at first glance seem like a sci-fi conspiracy mystery theory but frighteningly it seems entirely possible in the present polarized environment particularly as we presently see legislative, possibly executive, and judicial powers all headed towards a feudalistic, monopolistic, oligarchic, monumental shift in our society. Are we not headed for this now?

The Robert’s court much like the Taney court made broad, extreme decisions that massively affected and influenced our culture—both in terrible and horrific ways. Taney’s Dred Scott decision sent us into a terrible long civil war. We do not yet know the full effects of the partisan Robert’s court Citizens United decision. We do already see the immediate effects of our current elections being totally out of balance with a handful of mega wealthy persons being able to donate unlimited funds to assure that they buy all the influence and control that they need for their own interests. To be sure those interests are not the same interests as the average citizen—you and I.


By Raymond O’Brien, PhD.
Psychologist/ Author

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