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• Former Justice O’Connor Sees Ill in Election Finance Ruling  

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor did not sound happy on Tuesday about the Supreme Court's big campaign finance decision last week. It repudiated a major part of a ruling Justice O'Connor helped write before her retirement from the court in 2006, and it complicated her recent efforts to do away with judicial elections.

"Gosh," she said, "I step away for a couple of years and there's no telling what's going to happen."

Justice O'Connor criticized the recent decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, only obliquely, reminding the audience that she had been among the authors of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, the 2003 decision that was overruled in large part on Thursday. . . .

"These two cases," Justice O'Connor said, referring to Citizens United and Caperton, "should be a warning to states that still choose their judges by popular election."

Then she sketched out what the future might hold.

"We can anticipate that labor unions and trial lawyers, for instance, might have the financial means to win one particular state judicial election," she said. "And maybe tobacco firms and energy companies have enough to win the next one.

"And if both sides unleash their campaign spending monies without restrictions, then I think mutually-assured destruction is the most likely outcome."

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Gosh. I step away for a couple of years and there's no telling what's going to happen.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, on the Citizen's United verdict.

These two cases [Citizens United and Caperton] should be a warning to states that still choose their judges by popular election. We can anticipate that labor unions and trial lawyers, for instance, might have the financial means to win one particular state judicial election. And maybe tobacco firms and energy companies have enough to win the next one. And if both sides unleash their campaign spending monies without restrictions, then I think mutually-assured destruction is the most likely outcome.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, assuming lawyers and unions can match the firepower of corporations.