Thursday, June 30, 2011

EJ DIonne: Supreme Court and privilege, perfect together - NorthJersey.com

EJ DIonne: Supreme Court and privilege, perfect together - NorthJersey.com

EJ DIonne: Supreme Court and privilege, perfect together

FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2011
THE RECORD

THE UNITED STATES Supreme Court now sees its central task as comforting the already comfortable and afflicting those already afflicted.

If you are a large corporation or a political candidate backed by lots of private money, be assured that the court’s conservative majority will be there for you, solicitous of your needs and ready to swat away those pesky little people who dare to contest your power.

This court has created rules that will have the effect of declaring some corporations too big to be challenged through class actions, as AT&T consumers and female employees at Wal-Mart discovered.

And remember how sympathetic conservatives are supposed to be to the states as “laboratories of democracy,” pioneering solutions to hard problems?

Tell that to the people of Arizona.

They used a referendum to establish a highly practical system of financing political campaigns designed to reduce corruption and give a fighting chance to candidates who decide to forgo contributions from