A Jan. 29 CNSNews.com article by Fred Lucas carries the headline “Obama Was Wrong and Alito Was Right” — a statement repeated in Lucas’ lead paragraph. Lucas goes on to claim that “During his first State of the Union speech on Wednesday, President Barack Obama incorrectly stated that foreign nationals and foreign entities can now contribute unlimited amounts of money to U.S. political campaigns because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling lifting certain campaign finance restrictions.”
Actually, Lucas is wrong and Obama is right. Obama never claimed that the Supreme court decision allowed “foreign nationals” to contribute to American campaigns; according to the quote Lucas highlighted, Obama specifically stated “foreign corporations,”and his later reference to “foreign entities” can in context be presumed to refer to “foreign corporations.”
Which, it appears, is correct. Because the Supreme Court ruling makes no distinction regarding ownership, it can be reasonably interpreted to permit the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-owned corporations to donate to U.S political campaigns. That’s a point made in the dissenting opinion signed by four justices, but Lucas makes no reference to it.