David Bossie is the President of Citizens United, a conservative advocacy group. Prior to assuming his position with Citizens United in 2000, Bossie worked as a Congressional investigator.
In 1997, Bossie was forced to resign his position of chief investigator of the Whitewater inquiry looking into President Clinton's campaign finances. Bossie was relieved of his duties after it was revealed he edited tapes and transcripts of former U.S. Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell's telephone calls, leaving out key details. The revised material was then published.
Citizens United does the majority of its advocacy work through the production of commercials and documentaries. In the lead up to the 2008 primary elections, in which Hillary Clinton was running for the Presidential nomination, Citizens United wanted to release its film Hillary: The Movie, and advertise it on broadcast television, around the time many states held their primary elections. The film is extremely critical of Clinton.
The Federal Election Committee (FEC) said that unless Citizens United disclosed who was funding the advertisements, it could not air them as they would violate the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act which prohibits corporations from using their own finances to broadcast ads about a candidate 30 days before a primary.
Citizens United sued the FEC. The U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the FEC, stating:
"The Movie is susceptible of no other interpretation than to inform the electorate that Senator Clinton is unfit for office, that the United States would be a dangerous place in a President Hillary Clinton world, and that viewers should vote against her."
Citizens United appealed the case all the way up to the Supreme Court. In a controversial 5-4 vote, the Court ruled in favor of Citizens United, stating that under the first amendment, funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited.
This ruling has effectively opened the floodgates for corporate campaign financing and advocacy, and was a real win for the conservative movement. President Obama said the ruling dangerously opened up America's democracy to special interests:
"With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington."
In an interview with Slate magazine, Bossie said it was always his intention to create a situation that would turn into a legal case: "It was 100% calculated toward fighting the FEC."
To that end, Bossie received help from some of the conservative movement's most influential players. Ted Olsen argued the Supreme Court case; Olsen has previously served as outside counsel for Koch Industries and also argued on behalf of George W. Bush in his Supreme Court battle with Al Gore over the results of the 2000 presidential election. Olsen is also a prominent member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal foundation, which has received funding from the Koch brothers.
Additionally, the Cato Institute and the Institute for Justice, two Koch funded groups, filed briefs with the Supreme Court in support of Citizens United.
