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During the 2007 Primary elections for the Presidential nomination, a conservative group called Citizens United attempted to air a documentary critical of then Senator Hillary Clinton on a cable TV channel. The film was highly critical of Clinton in light of her candidacy for the Democratic nomination. But the 2002 McCain-Feingold law banning corporations and groups from influencing election campaigns, was invoked to bar the screening of the film. Citizens United sued the Federal Elections Commission to challenge those provisions of the law but their request was denied by a US District Court based on the fact that the Supreme Court had already found McCain-Feingold constitutional in the 2003 case of McConnell vs. FEC. Now, in what some are calling a stunning move, the Supreme Court is planning on rehearing the case of Citizens United vs. FEC on September 9th. The group Public Citizen has rapidly mobilized a new campaign to protect election integrity against corporate influence called Don’t Get Rolled. They assert that “the Supreme Court has transformed a case that posed a limited challenge to the McCain-Feingold law into a sweeping challenge to a century-old pillar of campaign finance doctrine: restrictions on direct corporate and union financing of candidate campaigns.”

GUEST: David Arkush, Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division

Find out more at www.DontGetRolled.org.