You were probably overrun yesterday with news and commentary about Montana’s century-old restrictions on corporate political spending being struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.  There are even more stories today about the decision with some Montana print and television reporters trying their best to explain the ruling.

Here are my thoughts – enjoy!

First of all it was a 1912 law, so it was long past time for it to go…

On Monday, the Supremes (aka: The U.S. Supreme Court) basically slapped Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock across the face along with members of the mostly inept Montana Supreme Court.  The Supremes killed a 1912 Montana law limiting corporate campaign spending right in front of Bullock (and the women and children).  It was a quick and clean kill with little blood.  The vote was a 5-4.  The Montana news took a backseat to Arizona’s issue with immigration.

The Supremes did not even give Montana much of an answer – just a few words:

PER CURIAM.

A Montana state law provides that a “corporation may not make . . . an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political committee that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party.” Mont. Code Ann. §13–35–227(1) (2011).  The Montana Supreme Court rejected petitioners’ claim that this statute violates the First Amendment.  2011 MT 328, 363 Mont. 220, 271 P. 3d 1.  In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, this Court struck down a similar federal law, holding that “political speech does not lose First Amendment protection simply because its source is a corporation.”  558 U. S. ___, ___ (2010) (slip op., at 26) (internal quotation marks omitted). The question presented in this case is whether the holding of Citizens United applies to the Montana state law. There can be no serious doubt that it does. See U. S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2.  Montana’s arguments in support of the judgment below either were already rejected in Citizens United, or fail to meaningfully distinguish that case.

The petition for certiorari is granted.  The judgment of the Supreme Court of Montana is reversed.

It is so ordered.

Many Democrats cried foul (or crap) over the decision mostly because they are now wondering if they have enough “special interest friends” to compete with the Republican “special interest friends” funneling money into Montana politics.

Local newscasts should now go to a full hour to have more time for all the campaign commercials.  The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will probably need to hire more workers since more campaign literature will be hitting our mailboxes (this may actually save the USPS).  We’ll have more door to door campaigning – not from the actual candidates, but from people hired by third party groups to do the dirty work.  There will be tons of pizza purchased in Montana to feed all these workers volunteers…

Of course none of this will be coordinated between the third-party groups and the campaigns – not at all…that is illegal…

After the decision, the Associated Press reported, “Bullock called the nation’s high court just ‘another political body,’ while Gov. Brian Schweitzer says the Supreme Court is now endorsing ‘dirty, secret, corporate, foreign money.’”

Bullock has been milking this case for several weeks to help his campaign for governor.  A few hours after the decision, the Bullock for Governor Campaign sent an e-mail with the subject, “I Won’t Back Down” (which I first thought was an announcement that Tom Petty was going to hold a concert for Bullock).  Bullock then asked supporters, “If you’re with me, please click here and consider contributing $20 today to help us continue the fight against unlimited corporate spending in elections.”

I read somewhere that Bullock is 0-3 facing the Supremes.  Many Montanans are probably thankful he is not running for AG again – Montana might actually win one with Bucy or Fox at the helm…

U.S. House candidate Kim Gillan sent an e-mail Monday evening with the subject, “100 Years” and she wrote, “Unfortunately, today’s bad decision by the Supreme Court is turning back the clock on one hundred years of good government in Montana.”  She also said, “Can you pledge to contribute $10, $25, $50, or even $100 ($1 for every year since the citizens of Montana passed the Corrupt Practices Act of 1912)?”

At least they are not angry enough to quit raising money…

Schweitzer and Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger even did a YouTube video about the decision.  I was giggling and then realized they were very serious.  I thought they resembled Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne in a scene from “Dumb and Dumber” in trying to explain their outrage surrounding this decision.  There was one good thing that I took from the video and that it was neat to see the bolo tie and the bow tie together in the same video!

Republicans like Denny Rehberg used the “freedom” angle.  I thought I would hear some Republican use a line from the Braveheart movie, “they’ll never take…our Freedom” to have unlimited money thrown into our elections to help lead us to victory…

It’s a big freedom of speech thing to the Republicans (as long as it’s not the Unions having that freedom)…

So after all this posturing on both sides, what has really changed?  The answer is nothing.  The sun is already coming up, and I bet there will be more e-mails asking for donations hitting my inbox today because we can’t let corporations buy Montana elections (unless they buy our candidate’s election).

A few hours after the decision was released, the campaign manager for Denny Rehberg’s senate campaign sent me an e-mail with the subject, “Under Attack” which for a moment I thought was about drones or chickens.  Rehberg’s campaign manager asked, “Did you know that outside interest groups have already spent about $2.5 million attacking Denny and trying to keep liberal Senator Jon Tester in Washington?”

Holy Bill of Rights, Batman…

Thanks to five members of the U.S. Supreme Court, Rehberg’s friends can now throw him a lifeline made with money…and Jon Tester’s friends can counter by throwing wads of money into Montana to help the first-term senator.  All’s fair…

So get ready Montana…the floodgates are now officially open.

Follow Jack on Twitter @TheWesternWord