A few days ago, the Supreme Court issued what I would consider the “Dred Scott decision” of campaign financing.  The Dred Scott decision of a slaveholder dominated Supreme Court in 1857 eliminated all restrictions  on the extension of slavery at a time when anti-slavery forces represented majority opinion in the free states.

 Here, a Supreme Court dominated by large corporations and the rich eliminated all restrictions to the use of money in political elections, even though that is clearly contrary to the opinion of a large majority of the American people.  To add insult to injury, in the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court declared that the framers of the constitution never intended any Black to be a citizen, so that the citizenship rights of free Blacks in the North were also attacked.  To add insult to injury, this  court made its decision on the “First Amendment” to the constitution,  the foundation in the Constitution of civil liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, in effect saying that freedom in political elections in reserved for those who can afford it.  This month’s Marxist IQ is dedicated to the U.S. Judiciary.

1.       The U.S. constitution

a.       gave the Supreme Court the right to review and repeal laws passed by local, state, and federal  governments

b.      gave the Supreme Court the right to initiate legislation

did not give the Supreme Court the specific right of judicial review of laws passed by local, A Marxist IQ for April

c.       state, and federal governments

d.      called for elected Supreme Court justices

2.       The U.S. Constitution

a.       Fixed the number of justices on the court  at the present number, nine

b.      Initially fixed the number at five

c.       Had no fixed number of justices

d.      Had the Senate initiate Supreme Court appointments

3.        Although “conservatives” denounced the Supreme Court for “judicial activism” because o f its civil rights and civil liberties decisions after WWII,

a.       the court ‘s “judicial activism” through history has been used mostly against labor and social welfare legislation

b.      the court’s “judicial activism “has  been  used  mostly against the regulation of corporations

c.        the court, whose members are appointed for life, is least amenable to mass democratic pressure

d.      All of the above

      4, Faced with a rightwing dominated Supreme Court which threatened to repeal the National Labor Relations Act, Social Security, and Unemployment Insurance, and had already declared state minimum wage laws unconstitutional, the Roosevelt administration

a.       quietly accepted these decisions

b.      Criticized the Court for these decisions

c.       sought behind the scenes compromises with the court

d.      launched a bold campaign to reorganize the Court by expanding the number of judges, a campaign which was defeated only after the Court upheld the National Labor Relations Act and Social Security

5.       From the late 1930s to the early 1970s, the federal judiciary, focusing on the General Welfare clause of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, increased both  government’s power to regulate business  and enact social legislation  and the right of  political minorities  and minority groups, those whose rights most needed protection, to be protected from private and public infringements of their rights under the  Bill of Rights. The present Supreme Court decision

a.       continues these civil rights, civil liberties policies

b.      substitutes corporations and the rich for  political and ethnic minorities,  in effect  turning these policies upside down

c.       can become a precedent for advancing civil liberties and civil rights for all

d.      calls upon progressives to raise more money for elections, which will be good for the economy

Answers to last Month’s IQ

1.d

2.b

3.c

4.a

5.d