Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Center’s Adviser on Constitutional Literacy, is a highly respected, veteran commentator on the Constitution, but even highly respected veterans can commit sentences, as Denniston did yesterday, that are highly misleading even though accurate.
Writing on the National Constitution Center’s CONSTITUTION Daily blog, Denniston wrote that the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission had the effect of “unleashing untold millions of corporate dollars on U.S. election campaigns.”
Really? True, it did that. But that decision also and equally had the effect of “unleashing” untold millions of labor union dollars and probably untold millions of non-profit public interest group dollars. Stating that it unleashed political contributions only from corporations is, as I said, highly misleading even though it is not inaccurate.
