Van Hollen Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on the Montana Supreme Court Case

Press Release

Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen issued the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down Montana limits on corporate campaign spending:

"The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Montana's ban on corporate spending in elections is the wrong decision for Montana and it is the wrong decision for America. It flies in the face of the state's history of the corrosive influence of corporate spending and rejects the decision of Montana voters to rid their state of this corrupt influence. As Justice Brandeis said, "sunlight is the best disinfectant.' In this case, it may be the only disinfectant. Congress must pass the DISCLOSE Act so that the American people can see who is bankrolling this country's elections."

BACKGROUND:

Today the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision to reverse a decision by the Montana Supreme Court that upheld the state's longstanding ban on corporate campaign expenditures. Corporate spending in elections was banned in 1912 as a result of the corrosive political influence of Montana's "copper kings" in buying elections. This prohibition was recently challenged in light of the U.S. Supreme Court 2010 decision that legalized such expenditures based upon a determination that corporate spending could not have a corrupt influence.

Mark Twain, referring to one of Montana's copper barons, said that "He was said to have bought legislatures and judges as other men buy food and raiment. By his example he has so excused and so sweetened corruption that in Montana it no longer has an offensive smell."

Congressman Van Hollen filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Montana Supreme Court's decision to uphold the state's law.

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