Michael Hiltzik: Shell Oil allegedly coerced its workers to attend a Trump rally. Blame the Supreme Court
Workers at a Royal Dutch Shell petrochemical plant outside Pittsburgh were coerced into attending a political event featuring President Trump on Aug. 13 on pain of losing overtime pay for the week.
It used to be illegal for employers to dragoon their workers into participating in their political activities. But that ended in 2010, with the Supreme Court's decision in a case known as Citizens United.
The landmark decision by Justice Anthony Kennedy held that corporations have a First Amendment right to make independent political expenditures. On the surface, its principal consequence was to open the American political system to virtually unlimited corporate donations.
But almost from the inception, legal scholars warned that the decision would allow corporations to turn their workers into
