Senator Hatch spent most of his allotted questioning time trying to refute what he called “misstatements” by critics of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United. Particularly, he tried to defuse claims that the decision permits foreign corporations to heavily influence the outcome of our elections by getting Kagan to admit that the case itself didn’t involve a foreign corporation.

Kagan readily agreed, since it is a matter of record that the plaintiff in the case was a domestic corporation and not a foreign corporation. But he cut her off when it looked as if she was going to continue. Most likely, he didn’t want to hear that his question missed the point.

The conservative majority in Citizens United held that corporations have the same First Amendment political speech rights as individuals and that they are now allowed to make unlimited independent expenditures from their general corporate accounts. There was no limitation in the decision that would prevent a U.S. company that is a subsidiary of a foreign corporation – or controlled by one – to pour millions of dollars into our elections to further foreign interests.

This very real loophole is why it is imperative for Congress to pass the DISCLOSE bill to prevent what Hatch wrongly dismisses as a misstatement.