[EL] McCutcheon transcript -- Definition of Audacity

[Marty Lederman]

Please let me know if I'm misreading this, but doesn't Justice Scalia,
joined by Justice Kennedy, spend page after page chiding the SG that the
contribution limits can't possibly serve an anti-corruption interest
because they'll simply cause wealthy individuals to funnel their dollars
into independent expenditures (and PAC expenditures), for which
officeholders will be even *more *grateful, thereby increasing the risk and
degree of corruption?

Finally, after exhibiting admirable patience, SG Verrilli said:  "Well,
Justice Scalia, I'm not here to debate the question of whether the Court's
jurisprudence is correct with respect to the risks of corruption from
independent expenditures."  And then when Justice Kennedy expressed
dissatisfaction with that answer, Justice Kagan quipped:  "I suppose that
if this Court is having second thoughts about its rulings that independent
expenditures are not corrupting, we could change that part of the law."

I don't know how it played in the courtroom . . . but on the page, it sure
comes off as the ultimate in chutzpah.


On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 1:34 PM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:

>  ** ** Read the Transcript in McCutcheon Oral Argument at Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55810>
> **
>  Posted on **October 8, 2013 10:33 am**<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55810> by
> Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>  **
>
> Here<http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/12-536_21o2.pdf>
> .
>  [image: Share]<http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D55810&title=Read%20the%20Transcript%20in%20McCutcheon%20Oral%20Argument%20at%20Supreme%20Court&description=>
>  **
>  Posted in Uncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
> **
>
> --
> Rick Hasen
> Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
> UC Irvine School of Law
> 401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
> Irvine, CA 92697-8000949.824.3072 - office949.824.0495 - faxrhasen at law.uci.edu
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