Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission is a controversial 2010 Supreme Court of the United States decision that First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution rights applied to corporations as well as biological persons, reversing laws that restricted corporate contributions to political campaigns. It is a victory for the corporate rights movement, a broader initiative to extend the originally narrow definition of a corporation as a legal person, to an entity that has the rights of biological people.

The Decisions

Decided by a 5-4 vote, the majority opinion was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Justice John Paul Stevens dissented, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor.