The Supreme Court recently handed down a controversial ruling that will alter the way campaigns are run. The decision of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission sets a dangerous course for our democracy.

The ruling lifted a ban on corporate campaign spending. Voters will have a hard time keeping their elected officials working for them and not large corporations, as businesses can afford to donate much more than the average person.

The landmark decision disregards recent rulings on campaign funding, including McConnell v. Federal Election Commission. The justices wrote in the majority opinion that the earlier case produced a “prohibition on corporate independent expenditures that is an outright ban on speech, backed by criminal sanctions.”

From this view, any move to block corporate campaign spending is a violation of the First Amendment. The Court has ruled in earlier cases that the First Amendment applies to corporations, thus giving them an identity, and that prohibiting campaign spending is infringing upon the “individual’s” freedom of speech.

The majority opinion of the Court has set up a perilous future for this country. The campaign playing field is now unequal. Corporations have vast resources that can now be used to influence elections. The average American voice now will not resonate through the hailstorm of money that will rain from the sky.

Not only this, the majority of the court overturned numerous Court cases and bipartisan campaign finance legislation.

“The majority’s approach to corporate electioneering marks a dramatic break from our past,” wrote Justice John Paul Stevens in the dissenting opinion. He cited five relevant Court cases, which the majority overturned in this ruling.

Not only did this case reject numerous Supreme Court cases, but it overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known as the McCain-Feingold Law, that banned soft money, or unlimited campaign donations from political parties, corporations, or well-to-to individuals.

Now null and void, the McCain-Feingold Law was supported by both parties. It passed with bipartisan support and was sponsored by a senator from each major party, John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis.

Our nation already has a partisan atmosphere to it. Unlimited donations can do nothing but fuel it. Now candidates will be able to fund more negative television ads and campaign literature. With Washington on a perpetual campaign, the last thing the general public wants is for them to up the ante.

“The Court’s ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. The path it has taken to reach its outcome will, I fear, do damage to this institution,” wrote Stevens.

Auctions will take the place of elections. Officials can now be bought and sold. The mistake that came down from the Supreme Court gave corporations and unions carte blanche in the political process.

Whoever has the deepest pockets, not the noblest cause or well-reasoned platforms, will win. This decision dealt a serious blow to not just our campaign finance law, but also our democracy and the American public.

Reach Andrew at andrew.hedlund@asu.edu