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Francis Wilkinson

Justice Kennedy's Political Casino

2016 race shows why Citizens United should be overturned. There's precedent for that.
Don't blame me!

Don't blame me!

Photographer: Pete Marovich/Bloomberg

The 2016 presidential campaign is unfolding in Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's world.

Kennedy's majority opinion in Citizens United, the court's 2010 ruling on campaign finance, gave corporations, unions and billionaires more leeway in their political spending habits. And while the decision is sometimes credited, or blamed, for more impact than it actually delivered, there's no question that big money has been running wild and free ever since it was decided.