The Supreme Court ended this way the restrictions imposed over a century ago on big corporations, ruling which was criticized by the US progressive sector.

President Barack Obama also strongly criticized the ruling of the Supreme Court, considering it a hindrance to achieve democracy which puts corporate interests before citizens. Obama made these statements this week in his State of the Union address, where he publically questioned the justices of the Court for the decision they had made. Six justices were seated directly in front of him in the House chamber.

"With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that, I believe, will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections." said Obama, according to AP news agency.

His words were received enthusiastically by the Democrats present, while Samuel Alito, one of the Supreme Court justices who voted in favour of the ruling and was nominated by former Republican president George W. Bush to be a member of the court, shook his head and murmored “this is not true”.
At the request of President Obama, Democrats plan to introduce a constitutional amendment to annul the ruling.

According to Democracy Now!, Democratic Congress member Donna Edwards of Maryland said: "The American people already believe that corporate special interests and their lobbyists run the show around here. I mean, the halls are crawling with them. But that’s not enough. Now the Court says to the big banks, to the drug companies, to the insurance companies, ’Hey, all bets are off, and it’s open season. Our elections are for sale. A law won’t fix this; we have to fix it in the Constitution. So today I’ll introduce a constitutional amendment so that we the people can take back our elections and our democracy. This is not the People’s House Inc. We are the people. It’s our house, it’s our Constitution, and it’s our election. And we plan to take it back from the United States Supreme Court."

*Audio of Donna Edwards taken from Democracy Now!

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