A Right For Retirement: Unconscionable Contracts, The Right (Not) to Associate, and Citizens United

The article explores the consequences of the Citizens United through the lens of the equity doctrine of unconscionable contracts. This expands on the argument regarding shareholders’ Right of Association addressed in the Citizens United decision I create a hypothetical around the contracts used by companies that manage retirement funds. My argument is that a consequence of Citizens United is that these contracts now include a person giving up their Constitutional Right Not to Associate with a corporation’s political activities. Such a price, and the fact that it is not revealed as a price, makes such contracts unconscionable. I conclude the article with a twist: the Constitution, viewed as a social contract, has been made unconscionable by Supreme Court cases such as Citizens United.