Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

Re:Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty pro... by tyre on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @03:49AM (#24834837)

I would still put Citizens up there. We have rules around elections in the same way that we have some limits on individual speech (yelling fire, and all that) to effect the fundamental right that the First Amendment is meant to protect. Similarly, PACs were an unforeseen (and in some ways unforeseeable to eighteenth century framers) exploit of a well functioning democracy as it relates to people.

Kucho vs. Common Cause as well. Gerrymandering is a clear abuse of the system. Kagan’s dissent is heartbreaking.

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Re:Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty pro... by rayiner on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @07:34AM (#24836183)

Citizens United doesn’t have anything to do with PACs.

I’m amenable to the idea there is a core of campaign finance law that’s non-objectionable. But prosecuting a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation for making a political movie about a candidate isn’t in the scope of that. That’s what the government chose to prosecute in that case. The “slippery slope” outcome—using a law ostensibly meant to keep Exxon from speaking to bludgeon a little non-profit—happened within a decade of the campaign finance law being enacted.

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Re:Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty pro... by danaris on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @08:41AM (#24836601)

While your statement is strictly true, Citizens United is one of the two (very close together) decisions that enabled the creation of SuperPACs.

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Re:Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty pro... by apexalpha on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @04:02AM (#24834916)

Yeah, but updating the constitution and election laws are congress' job, not the courts.

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Re:Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty pro... by mschuster91 on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @05:04AM (#24835256)

That would assume that there is a working Congress (for the laws) and working intra-state coordination (for constitutional amendments). The reality is that Congress has been locked up ever since the third year of Obama, and since 1971 (26th) there only got one constitutional amendment passed (27th, in 1992).

That is the reason why the courts have gotten so important, and why the Supreme Court and other federal justice nominations and their confirmation by the Trump administration will have such long lasting impact - given that there is no input from the legislative, governing has fallen to the executive and judiciary.

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Re:Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty pro... by apexalpha on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @05:35AM (#24835423)

I understand that, but I disagree you should 'force' the SCOTUS to pick up where Congress stops. Scotus is not where laws or society should be progressing; that should be congress.

And of course the founding fathers didn't foresee today's' society, so they included ways to upgrade and amend the constitution and election laws.

That congress isn't doing its job is a different debate entirely, but not Scotus' fault.

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Re:Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty pro... by pyronik19 on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @07:56AM (#24836301)

The fact you can't move your agenda forward in the legislature because its "locked up" is a feature not a bug. To then think its appropriate to use the judicial branch to bludgeon your agenda through is an abuse of its intended purpose in our system of checks and balances.

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Re:Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty pro... by mschuster91 on Tuesday October 20, 2020 @08:53AM (#24836694)

So ten years of standstill, even a government shutdown (which is a word only heard in third world countries), because of one political party being utterly unwilling to participate in normal democratic process, that is a feature to you?

> an abuse of its intended purpose in our system of checks and balances

The intention was to stop a dictator from rising, not that the country would be essentially governed by executive degree for a decade.

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