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Article: Reversal of Precedents at Issue; Campaign Case Touches on Justices' Stance on Earlier Rulings
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- September 8, 2009
- Author:
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The Supreme Court's unusual hearing Wednesday on the role
corporations can play in influencing elections carries the potential
not only for rewriting the nation's campaign finance laws but also
for testing the willingness of the court led by Chief Justice John
G. Roberts Jr. to defy the decisions of Congress and to set aside
its own precedents.
The court will consider whether the "proper disposition" of a
case -- pitting a conservative group's scorching campaign film
about Hillary Rodham Clinton against federal campaign finance laws -
- requires overturning two decisions that said government has an
interest in restricting the political activities and speech of
corporations.
That raises ...