Foreign Nationals Use Citizens United To Fund US Campaigns

Once again, it appears that the Supreme Court has not fully understood the far-reaching effects that some of their decisions would have. The rollback of the Voting Rights Act unleashed a wave of voting restrictions, many of which have been shown to primarily target minority voters and have been subsequently rule unconstitutional. And Citizens United has added an exponential amount of money into the political system, sometimes getting results and other times getting nothing. As Kevin Drum points out, one of the biggest complaints against Citizens United was that it would allow foreign money to flow into US political campaigns. When Obama mentioned this in a State of the Union message, Justice Alito could be seen mouthing the words “not true” when he heard that. Unfortunately, Alito is wrong. Today, the Intercept detailed how a Chinese owned company was able to funnel over $1 million to Jeb Bush’s Right to Rise Super Pac through a US subsidiary. There are a number of hoops that needed to be jumped through including that fact that the political donations must come out of the earnings of the US entity, thereby eliminating the use of just a shell company. But the fact is, it can be done. And you can be sure that, if the Chinese were able to do it, there are a flood of others who are lining up to do the same thing. Please read the whole article for all the sordid details. It is yet another example that we need a ninth Supreme Court justice – Merrick Garland is still waiting for a simple hearing – and justices that understand the ramifications of the decisions they make.