A.S. Haley: Supreme Court Healthcare Decision This Thursday

June 25, 2012

[IMPORTANT UPDATE 06/25/2012: The Court's decision in the Arizona immigration case had not been published for more than five hours before the Obama administration announced that it is suspending all cooperation with Arizona law enforcement to determine the status of illegal immigrants. This is lawlessness at the highest level of our country. The question is whether or not we are too polarized to do anything about it. See more below.]

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a decision in three of the cases pending before it. It summarily reversed (i.e., without hearing arguments or having additional briefs), by a vote of 5-4, the Montana Supreme Court's decision refusing to apply the U.S. Court's previous holding in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. Here is the decision announced today, in its entirety:

PER CURIAM.A Montana state law provides that a “corporation may not make . . . an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political committee that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party.” Mont. Code Ann. §13– 35–227(1) (2011). The Montana Supreme Court rejected petitioners’ claim that this statute violates the First Amendment. 2011 MT 328, 363 Mont. 220, 271 P. 3d 1. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, this Court struck down a similar federal law, holding that “political speech does not lose First Amendment protection simply because its source is a corporation.” 558 U. S. ___, ___ (2010) (slip op., at 26) (internal quotation marks omitted). The question presented in this case is whether the holding of Citizens United applies to the Montana state law. There can be no serious doubt that it does. See U. S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2. Montana’s arguments in support of the judgment below either were already rejected in Citizens United, or fail to meaningfully distinguish that case.

The petition for certiorari is granted. The judgment of the Supreme Court of Montana is reversed.

It is so ordered. the rest