Who Is Bankrolling A Lawsuit To End The Ban On Foreign Money In U.S. Elections?

[Shallah Kali]

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/18/foreign-money-in-elections

The fact that this lawsuit has been filed is not itself significant — anyone can file a lawsuit making whatever legal claim they would like. What is significant, however, is the fact that the case is being litigated by two high-dollar attorneys from a firm whose clients include some of the biggest corporate beneficiaries of the Citizens United decision — including Koch Industries and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Two lawyers from the law firm Jones Day, Warren Postman and Yaakov Roth, represent the plaintiffs in this lawsuit. Both lawyers are top graduates of the Harvard Law School who clerked on the United States Supreme Court from 2008-09. In other words, they are not the kind of lawyers who come cheap. In 2005, Jones Day charged as much as $370 an hour for lawyers with a similar amount of experience, and an attorney from one of Jones Day’s top competitors tells ThinkProgress that a fourth-year associate at their firm bills as much as $440 per hour today.

It’s highly unlikely that Postman and Roth’s clients are the ones paying their bills. One is a very young attorney who earns more than enough to live comfortably, but not nearly enough to hire two $440 an hour litigators. The other is a medical resident at a New York hospital, a job which earns less than half the young lawyer’s salary.

To be clear, a court decision in favor of Jones Day’s clients would not necessarily allow BP or the Dubai Sovereign Wealth Fund to immediately start buying U.S. elections. The lawsuit only asks the court to allow lawful permanent residents make campaign contributions. Nevertheless, such a decision would be a significant crack in the wall protecting American democracy from foreign money. There are any number of foreign corporations who would love to see that happen.

[Citizen Worker]

1. Fascism: the merger of state and corporate interests