In reality television, the people are represented by two separate but equally obsessed attorneys.

This is their podcast.

Hi, I'm Sessie, and I'm Angela, and this is the Bravo Docket.

Hi, legal team.

I just saw the Barbie movie last night, and I loved it, and I think I caught a pretty cool legal Easter egg that I wanted to share with y'all in this legal brief.

So at the very beginning of the movie, Stereotypical Barbie, which is played by Margot Robbie, is watching lawyer Barbie argue a case to the Barbie Supreme Court.

This happens very fast, and I haven't been able to find a clip of this part of the movie online to confirm, but I believe lawyer Barbie was quoting the dissent in the Citizens United case.

And this is really cool as an Easter egg in this movie for a lot of reasons, which I'm going to talk about, but if you are unfamiliar with the Citizens United case,

back in 2010, a conservative nonprofit group called Citizens United challenged campaign finance laws enforced by the Federal Election Commission,

and a five-four all-male majority of the Supreme Court cited with Citizens United overruling longstanding federal law,

which Justice Kennedy stated in the very first sentence of the majority opinion, and John is going to read that first sentence of the majority opinion for us.

Federal law prohibits corporations and unions, for musing their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech defined as an electionary communication, or for speech expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate.

Justice Kennedy justified the Citizens United opinion in part by stating that, if the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from finding or jeeling citizens or associations of citizens for simply engaging in political speech.

And Justice Kennedy went on to say,

if this rationale were to be accepted, however, it would permit the government to ban political speech simply because the speaker is an association that has taken on the corporate form.

The practical effect of the ruling in Citizens United is that corporations and other outside groups can spend unlimited money on elections.

And this is oversimplifying, but by essentially holding that corporations have the same free speech rights as people.

As a result of the Citizens United ruling, corporations can now spend unlimited funds on campaign advertising if they are not formally coordinating with a candidate or political party.

Okay, so now back to the Barbie movie.

The way this ties into the Barbie movie is so clever.

I believe lawyer Barbie quotes the following from the Citizens United dissent, which was joined by the only two female Supreme Court members, Ginsburg and Sotomayor.

Again, caveat, I just saw the movie last night, but if my memories correct, lawyer Barbie quotes some portions of the Citizens United dissent, quote,

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