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Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Supreme Court’s anonymous corporate donor mess

Since the Supreme Court made it legal this year for corporations to make anonymous unlimited donations to political candidates, you may never know who is donating to whom. But the giving could be unearthed in shareholder reports or other leaks, so some companies are already shying away from this method. Reporters caught 3M, Best Buy and Target in the act, but Dell, Colgate-Palmolive and Microsoft have decided against any corporate donations.

This is all the result of a conservative Court that could be paired down in the not to distant future to a more moderate body. Obviously, Republicans are the ones receiving the lion’s share of the money, which would certainly bend SCOTUS in the direction of big business. New York City advocate, Bill de Blasio, estimates that $80 million has already been spent by groups with anonymous donors, with even more expected in the final days before mid-terms.

Anonymous comments on this blog make sense, but when you are dealing with millions of dollars to influence politicians—and that is what it is—we should draw the line.

Read more here.

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