Democratic senators took turns blasting the Supreme Court today in the first Congressional hearing examining potential legislative options for curtailing fallout from the Court's ruling last month on Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission which will permit independent election spending by corporations.

Held at the Senate Rules Committee, chairman Charles Schumer, D-NY, condemned the Court's willingness to overrule precedent. "The Roberts Court turned its back on stare decisis," he said.

Schumer's colleagues jumped on the critizing bandwagon. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., said the Court "harmed its own integrity;" Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., pointed to Chief Justice John Roberts' statement during his Senate confirmation hearings that he would be an impartial umpire on the Court. The recent decision, Durbin said, "makes it clear he is an umpire on steroids;" and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said the decision would allow the election system to be "tilted inexorably toward those who have the most money."

Standing up for the Court's decision, committee ranking member Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, noted that media corporations are free to spend money on speech that impacts elections. He used MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann's recent vitriolic assessment of then candidate and now Sen.-elect Scott Brown, R-Mass. as an example of how media is free to influential elections.

"All Americans have the right to make fools of themselves if they want to by going over the top," said Bennett, who called himself a "First Amendment hawk."

The committee heard testimony from opponents and supporters of the Court's decision, who largely spoke about how the political landscape might look going forward. But one testifier joined the senators in taking aim at the Court itself. Heather Gerken, a professor at Yale Law School, said it is dangerous for the Court to take a "tit-for-tat approach to its own precedents" and that it should not overrule precedent simply based on whether prior decisions were "badly-reasoned or controversial."

If that were the standard, she said, "The Court is going to have a lot of work to do."

In his questions, Schumer turned the hearing toward specific legislative proposals, asking testifiers to weigh in on whether various measures would mitigate the impact of the decision. He reiterated that he will introduce a bill with that aim with Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Schumer asked about how to strengthen disclosure and disclaimer rules, whether legislation should apply to groups such as 501c4s, 5s, and 6s, and whether lowest unit rate rules--which would allow candidates to buy air time more cheaply--might have a mitigating effect. Other proposals mulled during the hearing included measures to limit the influence of foreign corporations and public financing measures.