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Title: Justice Defends Ruling on Finance
Source:
The NY Times
URL Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/us/politics/04scotus.html?ref=us
Published: Feb 4, 2010
Author: Adam Liptak
Post Date: 2010-02-04 08:11:50 by war
Keywords: None
Views: 14790
Comments: 27
WASHINGTON — In expansive remarks at a law school in Florida, Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday vigorously defended the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance decision.
And Justice Thomas explained that he did not attend State of the Union addresses — he missed the dust-up when President Obama used the occasion last week to criticize the court’s decision — because the gatherings had turned so partisan.
Justice Thomas responded to several questions from students at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla., concerning the campaign finance case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. By a 5-to-4 vote, with Justice Thomas in the majority, the court ruled last month that corporations had a First Amendment right to spend money to support or oppose political candidates.
“I found it fascinating that the people who were editorializing against it were The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company,” Justice Thomas said. “These are corporations.”
The part of the McCain-Feingold law struck down in Citizens United contained an exemption for news reports, commentaries and editorials. But Justice Thomas said that reflected a legislative choice rather than a constitutional principle.
He added that the history of Congressional regulation of corporate involvement in politics had a dark side, pointing to the Tillman Act, which banned corporate contributions to federal candidates in 1907.
“Go back and read why Tillman introduced that legislation,” Justice Thomas said, referring to Senator Benjamin Tillman. “Tillman was from South Carolina, and as I hear the story he was concerned that the corporations, Republican corporations, were favorable toward blacks and he felt that there was a need to regulate them.”
It is thus a mistake, the justice said, to applaud the regulation of corporate speech as “some sort of beatific action.”
Justice Thomas said the First Amendment’s protections applied regardless of how people chose to assemble to participate in the political process.
“If 10 of you got together and decided to speak, just as a group, you’d say you have First Amendment rights to speak and the First Amendment right of association,” he said. “If you all then formed a partnership to speak, you’d say we still have that First Amendment right to speak and of association.”
“But what if you put yourself in a corporate form?” Justice Thomas asked, suggesting that the answer must be the same.
Asked about his attitude toward the two decisions overruled in Citizens United, he said, “If it’s wrong, the ultimate precedent is the Constitution.”
Justice Thomas would not directly address the controversy over Mr. Obama’s criticism of the Citizens United ruling or Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s mouthed “not true” in response. But he did say he had stopped attending the addresses.
“I don’t go because it has become so partisan and it’s very uncomfortable for a judge to sit there,” he said, adding that “there’s a lot that you don’t hear on TV — the catcalls, the whooping and hollering and under-the-breath comments.”
“One of the consequences,” he added in an apparent reference to last week’s address, “is now the court becomes part of the conversation, if you want to call it that, in the speeches. It’s just an example of why I don’t go.”
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#1. To: padlock (#0)
How so? If anything, it further points out how absurd the ruling was.
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
It's a fact that Tillman was very anti-nigger.
Tillman himself or the act?
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
He was largely responsible for calling the State constitutional convention in 1895 that disfranchised most of South Carolina's black men and required Jim Crow laws. As Tillman proudly proclaimed in 1900, "We have done our level best [to prevent blacks from voting]...we have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it." I have no idea his reasons for the the act, but I would give Thomas the benefit of the doubt in what he said.
Thomas was talking out of his ass. The act was a direct result of a POPULIST movement of which blacks were a part...
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
But isn't he a "nigger"?
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
'AJ Thomas Clueless As To Why Tillman Act Was Passed & Plays Race Card Instead' The first 'quote' is the title of the article, which I had already posted. The second is what my anti groupie made up in his pea brain. I noticed you had a problem with another poster making up the titles to articles posted here a few days ago. You might want to address it again here. Thanks.
Its getting uglier out there...
(laughing)
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
no, but Obama is.
Point to any position that Thomas achieved in his life on his own merits...
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
For starters, he was an honor student in high school and in college, and had solid grades when he graduated Yale Law school. He wasn't given his degree like Obama was. In fact, Thomas has stated that after graduation, law firms just assumed he an "Obama like" graduate and just given his degree and he had a tough time convincing employers to take him seriously.
Release his transcripts...
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
That he was Yale Law Review like Obama was Harvard Law Review?
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
That WAS affirmative action. Where did Obama finish in his graduating class? What were his grades? Exactly what did he do of any significance at Harvard Law Review?
Challenge. Thomas says that AA got him into Yale and then hurt him which is why he was relegated to a permanent position as a bureaucrat. His highly successful black classmates - law parteners, federal judges etc etc etc say that's bullshit that it was more likely that he was an unremarkable student. Probably s[ent oo much time smoking pot and watching porn - which doesn't make him a bad guy, btw. Exactly what did he do of any significance at Harvard Law Review? He was the editor.
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
He graduated with honors as an undergraduate. All he ever said was that he did ask for his race to be taken into account, but there does not seem to be have been any need for it. What were Obama's undergraduate grades? Thomas graduated in the middle of his class in law school. Where did Obama graduate in his?
I like the previous title better than the current one.
So set up your own website, ethel. And it wasn't the title of this thread. I notice its been removed, and I greatly appreciate it.
Its getting uglier out there...
The irony is delicious.
Its getting uglier out there...
If I ever do I'd have to boot your whiny, goat-smelling butt off of it.
I don't care if people change titles. But they should be accurate and not contain the posters opinion. That article title wasn't accurate.
Of course, that way my anti groupie would focus exclusively on you, ethel. (laughing)
Its getting uglier out there...
Okay. I respect Colin Powell for the most part. I think it's an insult to call him Colon on purpose. But, what the hey.
We actually agree on that one.
Its getting uglier out there...
It was dead on balls accurate. A) He showed a total lack of knowledge as to WHY the Tillman act was passed and then b) compounded it by playing the race card. Let's face it, you AGREE with the decision and will go with any reason WHY the decision is valid. But the fact remains, there were several reasons WHY the Tillman Act was passed [a melding of moral and populist forces that had nothing to do with racial politics] and blacks in the corporate work force had nothing to do with it. As it was, agri business had yet to conglomerate and that is where most blacks worked. It really wasn't until WWII that blacks began what could be characterized as any meaningful migration into the industrial sector.
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
Was Thomas a preferential admit? Yes. Game over...
I think my prediction of 3 GOP Senate seats lost, and between 6 - 8 House seats is proving to be correct. But I think I nailed this one. We'll see. Badeye posted on 2006-11-03 16:11:09 ET Reply Trace ACtual results: House +31 Dems Senate +6 Dems
Here...the next three are on me...you'll have to supply your own cheesey mustache tho...
Sorry, the english language isn't the personal sandbox of those that can't describe opposing viewpoints accurately. Badeye posted on 2004-11-15 15:07:43 ET Reply Trace
That leaves a mark
#2. To: war (#0)
Plays Race Card
#3. To: dont eat that (#2)
#4. To: war (#3)
Presenting himself as the friend of ordinary white farmers, "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman took over the South Carolina Farmers Alliance, and used the organization to advance his political ambitions. He was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1890, and served from December 1890 to December 1894. He helped establish Clemson College and Winthrop College while in office, and the Tillman Halls on both campuses are named in his honor. When the Alliance founded the Populist Party on the Ocala Demands, Tillman arranged for the South Carolina Democratic Party to adopt the platform, though he refused to endorse the "sub-treasury," the Populists' most ambitious economic proposal, or to countenance any appeal to black voters. The strategy prevented the development of an independent Populist Party and the biracial politics of North Carolina, thus assuring white control through the dominant, white Democratic Party.
#5. To: dont eat that (#4)
(Edited)
#6. To: dont eat that (#4)
(Edited)
but I would give Thomas
#7. To: aka Stone (#0)
'Justice Defends Ruling on Finance '
#8. To: Badeye (#7)
#9. To: war (#6)
But isn't he a "nigger"?
#10. To: dont eat that (#9)
#11. To: war (#10)
#12. To: dont eat that (#11)
For starters, he was an honor student in high school and in college
#13. To: dont eat that (#11)
(Edited)
law firms just assumed he an "Obama like" graduate
#14. To: war (#13)
Obama was Harvard Law Review?
#15. To: dont eat that (#14)
That WAS affirmative action.
#16. To: war (#15)
#17. To: Badeye, A K A Stone (#7)
'AJ Thomas Clueless As To Why Tillman Act Was Passed & Plays Race Card Instead'
#18. To: Fred Mertz (#17)
#19. To: All (#18)
“Go back and read why Tillman introduced that legislation,” Justice Thomas said, referring to Senator Benjamin Tillman. “Tillman was from South Carolina, and as I hear the story he was concerned that the corporations, Republican corporations, were favorable toward blacks and he felt that there was a need to regulate them.”
#20. To: Badeye (#18)
So set up your own website, ethel.
#21. To: Fred Mertz (#17)
#22. To: Fred Mertz (#20)
#23. To: A K A Stone (#21)
#24. To: Fred Mertz (#23)
#25. To: A K A Stone (#21)
(Edited)
I don't care if people change titles. But they should be accurate and not contain the posters opinion. That article title wasn't accurate.
#26. To: dont eat that (#16)
(Edited)
#27. To: Badeye (#18)
I notice its been removed, and I greatly appreciate it.
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