On January 21, 2010, a divided United States Supreme Court ruled to overturn a century of legal precedent in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205.

Written by Justice Kennedy, the Court ruled that certain aspects of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) were unconstitutional.  At issue was whether or not the limiting of independent corporate spending on political speech during campaigns, as outlined in the provisions of the BCRA, was a violation of the First Amendment.  Up until now, corporations were allowed to spend money on campaigns via other avenues, such as Political Action Committees (PACs), but not from their own general treasury.  Reversing prior rulings, the court ruled that these limitations to speech were in fact a violation of the First Amendment.  Joining Justice Kennedy in the majority opinion were Justice Alito, Justice Thomas, Justice Scalia and Chief Justice John Roberts.  A ninety-page dissent was issued by Justice Stevens, who was joined by Justice Sotomayor, Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg.

 The Court’s ruling may not have that much effect here in Washington State, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.  Washington law does not prohibit contributions from corporations or unions from their general treasury as long as those expenditures are reported correctly.  However, the Commission is still reviewing the portion of the decision that affects ads that run in the closing days of elections.  For more information on how this ruling affects other states, the First Amendment Center has a breakdown on their website.

For full text of the decision, along with concurrence and dissents, you can go to the Supreme Court website and download a copy of the slip opinion.  For individual links to the majority opinion, as well as the individual concurrences and dissents, you can check out the Cornell Website.  Additional analysis has been provided by the folks over at SCOTUS blog.