Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

"The legal landscape" [2019] ELECD 2131; in Torres-Spelliscy, Ciara (ed), "Political Brands" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 18

Book Title: Political Brands

Editor(s): Torres-Spelliscy, Ciara

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Part I

Section Title: The legal landscape

Number of pages: 1

Extract:

PART I



The legal landscape


Commercial branders often lie to sell soap. Should branders also be able to lie
to sell who is standing on a political soapbox? By setting the ground rules for
elections, the Supreme Court enables many pathologies in politics, including
mendacity and corruption. The results of this can be seen in the ways that
dishonest politicians cite to campaign finance cases to try to wriggle out of
criminal liability. The results can also be seen in corporate political spending in
elections, which was enabled by Citizens United v. FEC, and in dark political
spending that has reached over $1 billion since 2010.
Instead of allowing for laws that require some truthfulness in political cam-
paigns or that restrain the influence of money in politics, the Supreme Court
is deregulating politics into a Wild West where nearly anything goes. The
message that the Supreme Court has broadcast is that it will not act as a check
on the worst instincts in American politics.
In the cases discussed in this part of the book, the Supreme Court sets the
stage for the debased politics where the candidate with the most money tends
to win, corrupt politicians duck behind the First Amendment to try to avoid jail
time and lying has become such a problem that a national paper of record has
to create the "bottomless Pinocchio" to capture the high level of mendacity of
the president.