Joe Conason has written The Public Shaming of Anthony Kennedy for Salon, with the subhead: “He claimed that online technology would make corporate donations instantly transparent. Now we see how wrong he was.”
I am no fan of Justice Kennedy’s opinion in Citizens United. But Justice Kennedy has opened the door to transparency in campaign spending. The fault for the lack of disclosure falls to (in this order): (1) the Republican Commissioners on the FEC, led by Don McGahn, who have read current disclosure rules in the least-disclosure-friendly way possible; (2) Republican Senate moderates, especially Sens. Brown, Collins, and Snowe, who failed to buck their party and to support a disclosure-only law that could have at least lessened the transparency problems in this election, and (3) Senate Democrats, who larded up the DISCLOSE Act with controversial limits on corporate money in election in addition to the disclosure rules.
For more views of CU see the half-full and half-empty versions.