Our Intensely Corrupt Supreme Court
As noted in parts one and two of this series, the justices of the Supreme Court created an abundance of absurd fantasy stories to justify their ruling in the Citizens United case. Citizens United rolled back the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act and the Tillman Act of 1907; both severely curtailed corporate campaign donations in federal elections.
In the Citizens United majority opinion, the justices wrote, “Yet certain disfavored associations of citizens — those that have taken on the corporate form — are penalized for engaging in the same political speech.” In other words, all shareholders of U.S. corporations are citizens of the United States. This claim serves as the foundation, if not the entire structure, justifying the Court’s ruling in Citizens United. Without this assertion, along with another dubious claim contained within the same quoted sentence, the justices could not have ruled in favor of Citizens United. (The justices’ second fantasy from the same quoted sentence above will be ridiculed as the make-believe absurdity it is in the next segment on Citizens United)
The first absurdity, “Yet certain disfavored associations of citizens — those that have taken on the corporate form….” is simply not true. According to the Tax Policy Center, foreign individuals owned 25 percent of U.S. corporate shares when the Court sided with their billionaire friends and benefactors in Citizens United. Foreign businesses owned at least another 19 percent. Foreign governments were among the shareholders.[i] How can foreign governments, businesses, and individuals be U.S. citizens? Only fantasy writers can create such absurd make-believe.
Where in the Constitution does it allow foreigners to overturn U.S. laws? The answer is nowhere. The Court’s justices fabricated the idea that “all shareholders are citizens” so the rich could reverse acts of congress that inhibited their abilities to bribe politicians and control the politics of the United States to fulfill their own desires. (This is a constant variable in the history of the Supreme Court, but particularly since 1970)
Like J.K. Rowling’s Platform 9¾ in the Harry Potter fantasy books, which allowed wizards and witches to access a magical world by passing like ghosts through a concrete barrier, the justice’s “all shareholders are U.S. citizens” fantasy story gave their billionaire friends and benefactors a make-believe legal pathway through and around the Constitution, along with other U.S. laws.
For example, according to the Federal Election Committee website, the Federal Elections Campaign Act and other Commission rules prohibit “foreign national activity in connection with elections in the United States.” This means all corporate political donations are illegal in the U.S. since corporate shareholders include millions of foreign individuals, businesses, and governments. The make-believe that all shareholders are U.S. citizens was an unconstitutional way around this thorny problem.
A conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment occurred with the justice’s fairy tale that all shareholders are US citizens. The Amendment’s first words are, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The Court’s ruling violated the Constitution since the Amendment does not grant citizenship to foreign governments, businesses, and individuals just because they own shares of U.S. corporations. Only congress possesses the constitutional authority to determine who is a citizen and who is not.
Nothing in the Constitution gives the Supreme Court the authority to overrule the Fourteenth Amendment, nor to change laws they and their billionaire friends and benefactors do not like.
The Court’s absurdity also violated the Eleventh Amendment, which forbids foreigners from using the federal courts to sue state governments. They must use state courts to sue. In order to take on the Citizens United case, the justices had to pretend all shareholders are U.S. citizens. How corrupt to the core is that?
Absurdities abound with the Court’s fantasy story that all shareholders are U.S. citizens. The Court’s logic, or complete lack of it, gives corporations the legal right to use the federal courts to sue state governments because they are owned by shareholders so long as they are composed only of US citizens. Without that caveat, corporations could not sue using the federal courts. So, what happens when shareholders sue their corporations? According to the logical conclusion of the Court’s make-believe, shareholders would be suing themselves, a case no court would take on in the real world.
Would you sue yourself? The mentally, morally, and legally warped black robed make-believers have made it realistic, but only in an illegal and unconstitutional fantasy world more absurd than Alice in Wonderland.
** Please note the billionaire’s news media, or rather propaganda machine, never questions the absurdities of the black robed make-believers because it is in their financial interests to not question the absolute stupidities the Court’s fantasy writers use to justify giving the billionaires more make-believe rights and everybody else less.
It is time to ignore the Supreme Court make-believe and continue to enforce laws such as the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act and the Tillman Act. This Supreme Court has had zero credibility, or even the illusion of credibility, since at least 1970.
Part one of this series can be found at https://johnhively.wordpress.com/2024/06/21/supreme-court-fantasy-stories-have-created-political-income-and-wealth-inequalities-on-behalf-of-the-billionaires-part-1/
Part two of this series can be found at https://johnhively.wordpress.com/2024/06/28/a-massive-history-of-supreme-court-fantasy-stories-part-2-of-3/
[i] Rosenthal, Steven M; Austin, Lydia, The Dwindling Taxable Share of U.S. Corporate Stock, May 16, 2016, p 929, https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/dwindling-taxable-share-us-corporate-stock/full