[Vision2020] Supreme Court Overturns Ban on Corporate Election

[Donovan Arnold]

I would say that this ruling reduces my opinion of our legal system and the lawyers and politicians that run it, but sadly it doesn't because it is something that I would except a legal system that is joke as are the self important lawyers in it.
 
Your Friend,
 
Donovan Arnold
 


--- On Fri, 1/22/10, John Pool <jpool at moscow.com> wrote:


From: John Pool <jpool at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Supreme Court Overturns Ban on Corporate Election
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Friday, January 22, 2010, 6:13 AM








Did the Supreme Court decision on the ban suggest how the expense of supporting or opposing a candidate shall be treated for tax purposes? It’s one thing to allow corporations (and presumably unions) to spend money directly for this purpose, but the money has to come from somewhere. Is it to be a legitimate expense, deducted from taxes, or taken from profit after taxes, or what? What will, and will not, the IRS allow? And what of shareholders? If XYZ Corp supports Sarah Palin for Congress from Alaska, and a sizeable number (or even a handful) of the shareholders are opposed to her, is this a legitimate basis for a stockholder suit? I suspect this decision by the Supreme Court, while seemingly favorable to big business, is not as cut and dried as it first appears. 
 
And if corporations have the same rights as individuals to spend money directly, do corporations have the same limits imposed on their expenditures as are exerted on individuals? What of non-profit corporations such as churches? Can they now openly support or oppose an individual or group at election time?  This seems like a subject made for the Viz—opinions will fly fast and furious and facts will be slow to develop. Oh boy! Watch the mud being slung!
 
John Pool
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