Dark Money Unlimited

As loyal readers know, BRT does not delve into politics very often unless the actions taken by a given entity, i.e. the Supreme Court, are so egregiously bad that commentary must be made. With this in mind, consider that  McCutcheon and Citizens United, (corporations are, in effect, persons vis a vis voting rights & campaign funding) have destroyed the notion of campaign reform forever, thus creating a plutocracy where unlimited funding of campaigns rule, something the Supreme Court, as per the Founding Fathers, was designed to prevent as the final arbiters of law as the SC justices were tenured for life and well provided for, conditions the FFs thought would free them from outside pressures, thus enabling them to rule in the national interest and not their own, something not happening with the Roberts court circa 2014.

In many ways, "it's the cushiest job in the world," said Supreme Court historian and University of Texas law professor Lucas "Scot" Powe.

Court members get lifetime employment, steady $200,000 salaries, ample vacation and comprehensive health benefits.

"There's also not that much required work, and they've made it less over time," said Powe, who clerked for Justice William O. Douglas in the early 1970s.

Clerks themselves do much of the administrative legwork for the justices, sorting through the thousands of petitions the court receives and summarizing them in short memos. They also help the justices craft their written opinions on selected cases.

Thirty years ago, the court issued roughly 120 decisions in a given term. It issued 83 in the 2008-2009 session.

The court's nine-month term also means abundant free time during the summer, when justices don't hear oral arguments or meet to decide cases. 

So... why is the logic used by Roberts so tortured to explain the "validity" of McCutcheon while Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent devastates it with elegance and power.

To whit

Roberts: "Ingratiation and access ... are not corruption" To unlimited amounts of $$ - BRT, right?

Breyer: "creates huge loopholes in the law...and undermines, perhaps devastates, what remains of campaign finance reform."

George Carlin said it best as Citizens United and McCutcheon merely codify what has been reality for a very long time.