IPFS News Link • Government

SCOTUS Blocks Montana Campaign Finance Ban That Challenges Citizens United

02-19-2012 • by Amanda Lang

The US Supreme Court has blocked, pending further review, the Montana Supreme Court's December decision upholding the state's century-old ban on corporate political spending. The order, released on Friday evening, comes in response to an application submitted last week by American Tradition Partnership, a conservative interest group that says it fights 'the radical environmentalist agenda,' and two companies, seeking to have Montana's ban struck down. A five-member majority of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2010 Citizens United decision declared that corporations' independent spending in elections does not corrupt -- or even appear to corrupt -- the political process. The Montana Supreme Court held that the state's history of corrupting corporate influence in politics, as well as the relative ease with which corporations may currently make expenditures through political action...