Two studies, one commissioned by the New York Times conducted by Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, and a second by the Constitutional Accountability Center show the Roberts Court spends more time in bed with American Business than individual Americans.
According to the Universities, it has
sided with business interests in 61 percent of relevant cases, compared to 46 percent in the last five years of Chief Justice William Rehnquist's
court. According to the Center,
the Roberts Supreme Court has sided with the Chamber 68 percent of the time, up from 56 percent under the Rehnquist court, and noticeably higher than the 43 percent during the relevant part of Chief Justice Warren Burger's court
Chamber spokeswoman and VP of its litigation unit, Robin Conrad insists it's only because "of the quality of the arguments and the briefs we present to the court."
Others would say that the Roberts Court is "open for business" and point to this cause, among others.
This year, following the Citizens United ruling that upended nearly a century of campaign spending restrictions on corporations and unions, the Chamber spent at least $75 million on the mid-term elections, campaigning against financial reform and climate change legislation, among other things, and donating primarily to Republican causes.
In all, shadow groups unofficially campaigning in the mid-term elections spent a quarter of a billion dollars on their efforts, a phenomenon possibly only thanks to Citizens United.
Another contributory trend is the movement of US solicitors general with experience arguing Supreme Court cases from their government jobs to the much higher salaried, hence more attractive, positions in Corporate America. In fact,
"starting in 1996, every former solicitor general, with one exception, has gone on to supervise a Supreme Court practice at a major law firm, earning as much as $5 million a year," the Times reports. "The exception is Justice Elena Kagan, who joined the court in August."
We live in an age when the judiciary is the single most important instrument for change. We also live in an age when the single most powerful arm of oligarchic sway is the Chamber of Commerce, which unabashedly declared in a brief before the Supreme Court, "A central function of the chamber is to represent the interests of its members in important matters before the courts."
And they are succeeding very nicely in their function.
. . .the vast majority of business decisions are decided by a lopsided majority of 7 to 2 or more.
Essentially, the Chamber of Commerce is working to seize control of the two arenas where individuals try to assert their rights over the influence of institutions in government: elections and the SCUSA. In fact, since 2005 it has orchestrated a well organized campaign to sharpen the ideological divide in this country and weight the favor of corporate interests so heavily that they dominate and control the direction of social, political, and economic change in this country.
Democrats must make overturning the Citizens United decision by legislative means a priority in future elections. One litmus test of all Democratic candidates should be their records regarding favoring the individual over the commercial. They should be vetted to ascertain their commitment to working to pass legislation that will remove the blight of Citizens United and all forms of corporate personhood from law, at every level. The laws on the page need to be restored to protect the rights of citizens over conglomerates. The politicians in office need to be those whose commitment to the rights of man over the rights of commerce is forefront.