As SCOTUS devolves, the crystal ball says individual citizens will no longer have a vote. 

The Supreme Court was once a treasure of our democracy. But today, it’s impossible to overlook its real purpose. In a nutshell, SCOTUS is now nothing more than a wholly-owned subsidiary of American wealth and business.

It is the realization of our Founding Fathers’ greatest fears, successfully dismantling, with the stroke of a few pens, the American dream—that ours would be a nation for and by the people.

In its landmark 2010 decision, Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, SCOTUS approved a system whereby large corporations could easily control the outcomes of elections, thus making the common man’s vote irrelevant. In a sense, a visionary system featuring the voice of the people had been replaced by a new king—big money.

Because of this SCOTUS-endorsed system of legal bribery, virtually every elected office in America can now be controlled by billionaires and the corporate bottom-line, giving unlimited financial support to election candidates that understand the tit-for-tat term, “Payback.”

Fast forwarding a few years, don’t ever forget that it was President Donald Trump who made it an immediate executive priority to name three new SCOTUS justices—justices who all refused to answer questions when quizzed during their confirmation hearings and lied about their specific stances on issues. None was forthright and transparent, and it appeared that each had secrets to hide. One was a member of a fringe, fanatical religious cult, and another had been accused of sexual assault.

One of the most important confirmation questions had been whether the prospective justices would be able to be fair and impartial, should the Roe v. Wade precedent be revisited. All three misled Congress when they agreed that Roe v. Wade’s protection of abortion rights was long established legal precedent or, in other words, “settled law.”

Confirmed in a whirlwind, the new justices made short work of fulfilling their personal agendas. The new, off-balance composition of SCOTUS has made it the special judicial arm of Republican and Christian Nationalist extremism, a veritable Protector of the Faith for a handful of super-corporations, mega-billionaires and the most extreme elements of the far right.

That was something that was never meant to happen. After all, impartiality should be the Supreme Court’s shining star, issuing decisions based on law rather than on personal prejudices.

To put a nail into an already disgraced Supreme Court, we now have clear evidence that multiple justices have been wined, dined and vacationed—to the tune of millions of dollars—by parties who had, or would have in the future, matters before the court.

The new SCOTUS has already made decisions that will take years to be properly reconsidered and vacated, but some of the most shocking ones are yet to come. Looking into my crystal ball, here’s a real doozie:

News Flash: March 3, 2025, Washington, D. C.
U.S. Supreme Court Issues Another High-Impact Decision.
Voting booths are about to change into vast structures—some covering areas as large as the state of Delaware—all because SCOTUS, based on the Citizens United decision that corporations are people, has issue a new decision: Corporations, themselves, will have the right to cast their votes in all local, state and federal elections.
This decision notes that there will no longer be any need for legal bribes. It will simply cut the individual citizen entirely out of the voting process and allow corporate entities to directly cast their own votes at the polls.
Under the new system, the corporate votes will be weighted according to each company’s gross annual sales. Ma and Pa’s Grocery, Inc. will have only one vote, for example, but companies like NVIDIA or Boeing will have millions of proportionate votes. Not everyone is happy, as the new decision will impose huge expenses for smaller towns, requiring them to have large enough polling booths to accommodate the largest companies.
At a recent City Council meeting in Panguich, Utah—convened for the express purpose of discussing the new SCOTUS ruling—Mayor DeLand Grant lambasted the court: “I don’t know what the hell these assholes think they’re doing, but how the hell can we comply with the new requirements to allow corporations of any size to use our balloting facilities?”
After adding a few choice expletives to his rant, Grant elaborated on the challenges the new ruling would impose.
“What this means,” he asserted, “is that our little town is going to have to have a voting booth large enough to hold a Boeing plant or Google headquarters, and I simply can’t see any way that we could allocate such a huge amount of space.
“Besides,” he continued, “this town isn’t even close to the size of those companies, which means the voting booth would cover virtually all the land in our community.”
Councilman Arnold Benedict countered the mayor’s words, noting: “Well, we can’t always keep seeing things in the same way we did back in the good ol’ days. They say that nothing can stand in the way of progress, and if it wasn’t ‘progress,’ SCOTUS would not have issued that decision.”
There was a rousing, “Yowza-yowza” as most of the Council acquiesced, endorsing Benedict’s view that the new law should be considered a wise step forward.
Councilwoman Ignorancia Gomez had a puzzled look on her face: “I am worried about a future where the personalization of corporations will have such an impact on virtually every elected post in our nation—not the worst of which is the possibility that a company like Boeing could actually run for the mayor of our town. After all, these corporations have registered agents in virtually every state, so, at least technically, we could have Mayor Boeing or Mayor Exxon sitting right here in Mayor Grant’s chair.”
There was a gasp from the mayor and the entire Council. “I guess,” stuttered a visibly shaken Grant, “that, because of their immense financial resources, the large corporations could virtually run off with every political position in America.”
Last heard was councilwoman Socka Tuem, who cheerfully noted that the new system actually makes sense. “The reality,” said Ms. Tuem, “is that this will merely make the purchase of political positions by big money a more visible and honest process.”
Under the new court decision, individual voters who are not incorporated, or who don’t hold a seat on one of the major securities exchanges, will no longer be part of any public election process.

Well, folks, isn’t it fun to have a crystal ball? That’s exactly where we’re headed.

The author is a retired businessman, novelist, columnist and former Vietnam-era Army assistant public information officer. He resides in Riverton with his wife, Carol, and their adorable and ferocious dog “Poppy.”