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The Supreme Court recently ruled in a case called McCutcheon v. Federal Election Committee. The man who started this case is called Shaun McCutcheon. He is a resident of Alabama and is a wealthy business owner. The law that limits spending was made in 1970 and it regulated that only $123,000 was able to be given to a candidate per election. Shaun McCutcheon believed that any donor should be able to give as much as he/she wants to give no matter the candidate. McCutcheon argues that this case was a type of 'freedom of speech' and he and other donors that wanted to do this were protected under the 1st Amendment. The Supreme Court decided to reject the limits in federal law on the overall campaign contributions that the biggest individual donors are allowed to contribute. The Justices ruled 5-4, and decided that all American's can give the amount that they want too without fear of breaking any government laws. Billions of dollars can now be donated to a candidate without a cap and this case will either be good or bad in the next elections.

I can understand the pro's and con's of The Supreme Court's ruling. I understand why some people would not want it enacted, and why other people would want it enacted. Either way money is a huge topic in elections, and to not put a cap on it seems to be against what our founding fathers wanted when they originally drafted The Constitution. Money makes things muddy, and it can be difficult to see how not capping the amount allowed to be given can cause an election to be run by PAC money instead of an election "By The People." 

References:

Lavender, Paige. "McCutcheon v. FEC: Supreme Court Strikes Down Overall Limits On Campaign Contributions." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

McCutcheon V. Federal Election Commission. (2014, April 2). Supremecourt.gov.Retrieved April 22, 2014, from, http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-536_e1pf.pdf

Wolf, Richard, and Fredreka Schouten. "Supreme Court Lifts Ban on Aggregate Campaign Donations." USA Today. Gannett, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Unit 7 Eneix

Utilizing your discussion as a start, continue on the perspective you chose on the City of Columbus.  Post a link to your blog of the particular area of the City of Columbus you have explored and expand on this with a discussion of demographic and other information pertinent to the City of Columbus, Ohio. 

I arrived by taking a plane to the Port Columbus International Airport, and got in a taxi to visit a small area called Upper Arlington. The small town feel intrigued me, and as I searched around the area I found out that its demographic was one 93.6% white and 6.4% other. The population has not grown but decreased after the year 1970, and currently there are less than 34,000 people living in the town. Its median income is over $71,000 and the majority of homes owned are single units. The second type of homes lived in are 2-4 room units. Upper Arlington isn't too far away from the city and therefore has around a 25 minute commute. There are multiple daycares, assistant living facilities and schools in Upper Arlington. They are known for their Labor Day Arts Festival, and their Lifelong Learning & Leisure Program. This community was settled in 1918 and therefore has beautiful architectural neighborhoods that are wonderful representations of its history. 

http://www.liveworkplaycolumbus.com/upperarlington.php

Unit 6 Comp. Assignment

In this comprehensive assignment,  you should take a media article of an action taken by a county government (county council or township council) and develop an opinion piece on the action taken.  Provide a link to the media article describing the action taken and then your own opinion piece.  It should be three paragraphs in length. 


Jefferson county, which includes the city of Birmingham, is drowning under $4 billion in debt, the legacy of a big sewer project and corrupt financial dealings that have sent seventeen people to prison (NY Times). Jefferson county here in Alabama is known for its bankruptcy and corruption of government individuals that put the county in this place (Blog.Al). The sewer debt along was $3.14 billion before Alabama paid out $35 million to lawyers to reduce the sewer debt to $1.8 billion. The people that all live in Jefferson County pay twice the regular amount for their water and sewer than they would normally pay if the county wasn't buried in so much debt (NY Times). 
The settlements that were mentioned above were finally added after 18 months of court battles between various companies and Jefferson County.  

It's hard to believe that billions of dollars are tied up in the the Jefferson County debt crisis, but the people of Alabama get to pay for those dollars every day, even though the bankruptcy was not their fault.  For awhile now negotiations have been aimed at gaining 'forgiveness' for a certain amount of debt so that sewer rates (Bloomberg).  (The sewer rates have increased over 600% since the filed bankruptcy).

Eventually, Jefferson county voted to file for protection under the U. S. bankruptcy law, and the filing represented the largest bankruptcy by a municipal government in United States history (Blog.Al). The bankruptcy emerged in late 2007 as interest rates for Jefferson county's enormous sewer construction debts shot upwards during a national crisis in the mortgage lending market (Bloomberg). Jefferson county then negotiated a provisional settlement with creditors in September 2011, and they agreed to refinance just over $2 billion in bond debt, out of a total of $3.2 billion which had been borrowed (Blog.Al).

Living in Jefferson county has been a stretch for my husband and I financially because of the double amount we pay for water and sewer. Thankfully, we are moving to Shelby county in two months which will reduce our bill in half and at least cause us to pay the average for our water and sewer. It is interesting to see the testament of Birmingham's bankruptcy as a show of their struggle with corrupt government officials in the State. Residents and non-residents are paying for the mistakes of greedy politicians, and it is very sad. 

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2014/01/these_five_firms_were_paid_nea.html#incart_river

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-30/jefferson-county-files-to-end-bankruptcy-adjust-debt.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/business/jefferson-county-ala-falls-off-the-bankruptcy-cliff.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

South Carolina and Alabama

South Carolina has three distinct Courts that all require the election of judges. The South Carolina Supreme Court, the court of appeals, and the South Carolina circuit courts. South Carolina used to depend on their legislature for the hiring of their judges, but this method came under fire after too many judges elected seemed to only be there because of who they knew. It was not an unbiased method, and therefore it was changed to having each judge in each court elected by the majority of the public. A fair unbiased method that would not raise any eyebrows.

http://www.judicial.state.sc.us/judges/howjudgeselected.cfm

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/judicialmeritpage/HowJudgesAreElectedInSC011110.pdf

http://www.judicialselection.com/judicial_selection/index.cfm?state=SC

Alabama is different than South Carolina in that it requires all judges to be licensed in law from the state of Alabama. The state also requires that all judges in the Supreme Court, Circuit Court, and District Courts to have 12 months of previous experience in either the Circuit or District Courts. Judges are elected by partisan elections and as long as they are full time are appointed as judges for four years. To be a part time judge means you are only employed for two years. There is a lot of controversy among the partisan elections in Alabama because there is not a limit on how much can be donated to a potential judge for candidacy.  

http://judicial.alabama.gov/appl_qual_elect_appt.cfm

http://judgepedia.org/Judicial_selection_in_Alabama

http://www.eji.org/files/judicialselection.pdf