O’Connor Obliquely Critiques SCOTUS Campaign Finance Ruling

Granted, Sandra Day O’Connor is retired from the U.S. Supreme Court, to which she was a Ronald Reagan nominee, but during a law school conference Tuesday at Georgetown, the former justice still made concerned noises about the top court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling. –KA

The New York Times:

“Gosh,” she said of last week’s campaign finance bombshell, “I step away for a couple of years and there’s no telling what’s going to happen.”

Justice O’Connor was giving the keynote address at a Georgetown law school conference devoted in part to how Thursday’s campaign finance decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, will affect judicial elections.

Her answer: “In invalidating some of the existing checks on campaign spending, the majority in Citizens United has signaled that the problem of campaign contributions in judicial elections might get considerably worse and quite soon.”

Justice O’Connor criticized the decision only obliquely, reminding the audience that she had been among the authors of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, the 2003 decision overruled in large part on Thursday.

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