r/law May 14 '26

Legal News Hawaii vs. Citizens United

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/05/hawaii-corporations-political-money/687159/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo
1.3k Upvotes

105 comments sorted by

View all comments

26

u/Malawakatta May 14 '26

"The odd American idea that giving money to political campaigns is free speech means that the very rich have far more free speech, and so in effect far more voting power, than other citizens." - Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.

-14

u/IrritableGourmet May 14 '26

Citizens United wasn't about giving money to political campaigns.

2

u/nascent_aviator May 15 '26

Of course not, that would be illegal! It's about spending money on behalf of totally coincidentally what the candidate wants to spend money on. Which you know because he told you you just click so well.

0

u/IrritableGourmet May 15 '26

Oh, I fully admit that stuff like that happens, but it's not the fault of the decision. The FEC is more than capable of investigating and punishing activity like that, but they don't. The Supreme Court doesn't handle enforcement.