Elections

Georgia Supreme Court blocks State Election Board's hand-count rule

| Importance: 6/10

Georgia Supreme Court unanimously ruled the GOP-led State Election Board exceeded its authority by passing rules requiring hand-counting of ballots at polling places. Chief Justice Nels Peterson wrote the Board “cannot go beyond, change or contradict” state law. The court blocked four …

Georgia Supreme Court Georgia State Election Board Chief Justice Nels Peterson NAACP Georgia election-administration elections state-courts voter-suppression hand-counting +1 more
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Supreme Court Strikes Down Aggregate Campaign Contribution Limits in McCutcheon v. FEC

| Importance: 9/10

Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that aggregate limits on total contributions an individual can make to federal candidates, parties, and PACs over a two-year election cycle violate the First Amendment. Chief Justice Roberts authored the majority opinion, joined by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Alito, with …

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Shaun McCutcheon Republican National Committee Justice Anthony Kennedy +5 more campaign-finance dark-money supreme-court judicial-capture corporate-power +2 more
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Supreme Court Citizens United Decision Unleashes Unlimited Corporate Spending

| Importance: 10/10

Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that corporations can spend unlimited amounts on elections through independent expenditures, enabling creation of Super PACs and dark money networks. The decision dramatically reshaped campaign finance, allowing corporations and unions to spend unlimited funds on independent …

Supreme Court Citizens United Federal Election Commission (FEC) Justice Anthony Kennedy Justice John Paul Stevens dark-money campaign-finance supreme-court corporate-power first-amendment +1 more
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Oligarchs Bankroll Yeltsin Re-election Victory: 'Seven Bankers' Control 50-70% of Russia's Economy Through Loans-for-Shares Deal

| Importance: 9/10

Boris Yeltsin won re-election as President of Russia in a stunning comeback victory engineered and bankrolled by a coalition of seven oligarchs who became known as the ‘Semibankirshchina’ (seven-banker outfit). Despite approval ratings below 10% earlier in the year, Yeltsin defeated …

Boris Yeltsin Boris Berezovsky Mikhail Khodorkovsky Vladimir Gusinsky Vladimir Potanin +3 more russia oligarchs semibankirshchina elections yeltsin +4 more
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