Adam White finds Jeffrey Toobin re-writing history in his much discussed New Yorker article on Citizens United. As Toobin set up the story, Citizens United was a little case, involving a “narrow” statutory question. According to Toobin’s New Yorker article, “There did not see to be a lot riding on the outcome.”
White finds Toobin’s account “preposterous.” As White notes, the day before the argument the NYT editorial page inveighed against the “wide array” of “sweeping” and “dangerous” claims made by Citizens United. Likewise SCOTUSBlog’s Lyle Denniston noted CU was asking the Court for “a sweeping rejection of congressional authority to regulate campaign spendingby corporations.” A CNN analyst named Jeffrey Toobin made the same point, opining the day of the oral argument that CU has “a pretty good case” and that the Court could “either say you have to come up with another way to regulate or this kind of regulation is simply unconstitutional.”