Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Citizens United Was The Current Supreme Court's Worst Ruling

Ginsburg Singles Out The Current Supreme Court's Worst Ruling
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 30: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, is photographed in the East conference room at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday, August 30, 2013. (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 30: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, is photographed in the East conference room at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday, August 30, 2013. (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressed her extreme regret over several of the current Court's rulings in a wide-ranging interview published in The New Republic Sunday evening, including their rejecting the commerce clause of President Barack Obama's health care law, and issuing a huge blow to the Voting Rights Act in their Shelby County v. Holder decision.

But the first Supreme Court ruling Ginsburg would send to the guillotine would be the Court's decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, giving corporations and unions the green light to give and spend unlimited sums of money on independent political activity. "If there was one decision I would overrule," Ginsburg told The New Republic, it would be Citizens United.

"I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be," she said.

Ginsburg said that the Court, in CItizens United as well as in the case of Shelby County, "should have respected the legislative judgment."

"Legislators know much more about elections than the Court does. ... I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed."

According to Ginsburg, things may have played out differently had Justice Sandra Day O'Connor not retired so soon. She told The New Republic that O'Connor would have sided with the minority on Citizens United, Shelby County, as well as the Court's Hobby Lobby ruling.

"I think she must be concerned about some of the court’s rulings, those that veer away from opinions she wrote," Ginsburg said.

Read the full interview here.

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