A different Citizen's United

Paul V McNutt

Banned
The POD is Chief Justice Rehnquist dies ten years earlier in 1995. President Clinton appoints former Senate Majority Leader and Federal Judge George Mitchell to replace him.The Republican Senate confirms him. In the 2010 Citizen's United decision Chief Justice Mitchell, Justices Stevens, Ginsberg, Breyer and Sotomeyer sign a majority opinion that maintains federal restrictions on corporate political spending. Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Roberts ( Who replaced Sandra Day O Conner in 2005. ) dissented. So how has is American politics of the last almost six years have been effected?
 

Pericles

Trump might not do as well, part of his brand is he can't bd bought and voters would be a bit less angry. Then again there were lots of other factors leading to the rise of Trump.

There'd still be big money, there was before the decision. It might not be as bad, so maybe a few races are altered.
 

troosvelt_68

Part of this also depends on what form of finance reform gets passed.

Original Democratic proposals had bans on corporate/business donations but entirely exempted unions and related groups

If such a plan passed and was upheld by courts the impact could be significant.
 
Carp

Carp

The title of this thread is burying the lede a bit - a differently decided Citizens United v. FEC is arguably not the most consequential potential effect of a POD in which Mitchell replaces Rehnquist in 1995. I mean, just for starters, that POD probably flips the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000. There's a good chance that your POD butterflies away Citizens United entirely.

If you just want to talk about the court case, however, I think the political impact of the decision has been less dramatic than its critics have feared - at least so far. Republican-leaning SuperPACs did not deliver the election to Romney in 2012, and more than $100 million in SuperPAC funds could not save Jeb! from a thorough humiliation this past year. The biggest impact of the decision, at least in presidential politics, was arguably to keep hopeless candidates on life support in the R primary of 2012 - like Newt Gingrich, who was single-handedly kept in the race by Sheldon Adelson's SuperPAC contributions. Its impact in the 2016 presidential election has, of course, yet to be determined.
 
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