Domina says court empowers highest bidder

Democratic Senate candidate Dave Domina on Wednesday said the U.S. Supreme Court’s new campaign finance ruling “continues down the dangerous path of putting federal elections up for auction to the highest bidder.”

That’s a pathway earlier established by the court in its Citizens United decision in 2010 that allowed corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited amounts of money independently to influence elections, the Omaha attorney said.

During a speech at the University of Nebraska College of Law, Domina said “the majority decision represents judicial activism at its height.”

Domina said the court’s five-member majority “overtly, and unashamedly, substituted its own judgment for that of the United States Congress” in overturning aggregate campaign donation limits for those attempting to influence elections during a federal election cycle.

“I call on Nebraska’s current congressional delegation, and all its candidates for federal office, to unanimously speak out against this judicial activisim,” he said.

The decision represents “precisely the kind of judicial activism, or legislating from the bench, that Nebraskans despise,” Domina said.

“One need not read beyond the first couple of pages of the majority opinion and Page One of the dissent to see that the court’s majority engaged in rank judicial legislating,” Domina told UNL law students.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSDon.