I have written a new piece for Reuters Opinion. It concludes:

The Supreme Court’s opinions are themselves actually promoting the appearance of corruption. On the day McCutcheon was decided, I spoke at a luncheon honoring the California Supreme Court and criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for failing to pay attention to facts and evidence in election cases. I quoted from Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in Citizens United, the earlier Supreme Court case that allowed corporations to make significant contributions to elections. Kennedy wrote: “we now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” Further, “[t]he appearance of influence or access…will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy.”

Kennedy’s remarks were huge laugh lines in my speech. No one in the public is buying what the court majority is selling anymore. People have become cynical about the role of money in politics.

We will now learn what happens to public confidence in an era of big money going into politicians’ pockets. The court may not call it “appearance of corruption.” But to the general public, that’s just how it looks.