Melissa Harris-Perry   |  February 24, 2013

The Supreme Court case that could change everything

Melissa Harris-Perry looks at the Supreme Court’s decision to hear McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, a case that could finish what Citizens United started.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> two recent supreme court rulings changed the path of our country. the first, bush v. gore resulted in the choice of a president. the second, citizens united forever changed how that choice can be influenced. citizens united opened the flood gates of the come pain contributions we saw in the 2012 election. flood gates that brought $5.2 billion, that's $5.2 billion. it was just 32 super pac donors giving $9.9 million that were able to match the $13 million that small donors gave to president obama and romney combined. it took 3.7 million to race that $313 million as compared to 32 megadonors what kept the super pacs rolling. they each gave $1 million or more to comprise $91.8 million. that's how much just one couple gave to super pacs in the last election cycle, making sheldon and marian the two largest donors. in spite of that, they spent 37%. less than one-half of 1% of their net worth . to put that into perspective, if the average middle class family with a net worth of $77,300 made that contribution, it would be $285. 322,000 middle american citizens have to donate to have a voice. shaun mccutcheon $33,088 was what he gave. he wanted to give more but was constrained. he sued. the supreme court agreed to hear the case. it's a case that could finish what citizens united started, bringing me to this number, zero. that's what could become of campaign limits if the court uses the case to open the flood gates of money further. back with my panel when we come back. ental