The corporatists have gotten to the state courts too?

America is supposed to have 3 equal branches of government that act as checks and balances of each other. But lately, there are some lawmakers who try to make themselves judges, some judges who try to make themselves lawmakers, and some Presidents who try to make themselves both. (I'm talking about Bush here - except he wasn't even a legitimate President.)

The Supreme Court went unchecked early this year in the Citizens United ruling - which created special "rights" for corporations out of whole cloth. As a result, dirty corporate money (much of it sponsored by totalitarian foreign governments) has flooded the airwaves during this election cycle.

There was no legal basis for the Supremes' ruling. None. It was an activist ruling.

Now folks in Montana are being treated to a big stinking repeat...repeat...repeat...repeat...repeat.

District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock (like Sherlock Hemlock, that dude on 'Sesame Street') has tossed out a state law against corporate bankrolling of political campaigns that had stood for almost 100 years. The 1912 law had been approved in a voter referendum - but I guess the will of the people takes a back seat to corporate "rights" created by an activist state court.

In issuing this ruling, the judge ruled in favor of the Western Tradition Partnership, a secretive right-wing think tank.

So corporations are people now? Clearly, they're being given more rights than people, since they've just been allowed to outvote a voter-approved law.

In the meantime, I think it's time for a statutory fix to the Citizens United ruling. Just pass the old law again and dare the rogue Supreme Court to do anything about it.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/18/AR2010101804283.html)