A year after the Citizens United ruling opened the tap to allow corporate money to pour into elections, the Supreme Court appears poised to weigh in on whether public financing is a constitutional way to combat the influence of money in electoral politics.

In the next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of a program in Arizona that provides matching public funds to candidates for office who face opponents with greater resources. If that program is struck down, public financing programs nationwide may need to be reconfigured, and New York City's public financing system may become the new model. 

Now that Rep. Anthony Weiner has announced his resignation, It's A Free Country takes a look at some of the possible contenders for that Ninth District seat.

Rep. Anthony Weiner announced his resignation from Congress on Thursday, 10 days after he first admitted he had sexually charged online relationships with several women: "Today, I am announcing my resignation from Congress," Weiner said Thursday.

More coverage: What's next for Weiner's district • Weiner's Wife Does Not Stand By Her Man • Spitzer Weighs in: Weiner Needs to 'Move On'

Anthony Weiner isn't resigning post-sex-scandal, and he's far from the first to try to keep his office in the wake of public shaming. He might want to take lessons from this list of pols who got tangled up in sex-scandals and ended up bruised, but not destroyed. Here are eight political careers that went on despite scandal.

In one of the more head-scratching resolutions to a political sex scandal in recent memory, Anthony Weiner today admitted that he did in fact send lewd photos of himself to women he'd met on the internet.

In an emotional and bizzare press conference at the midtown Sheraton this afternoon, Anthony Weiner admitted that he had contact through social media with several women from around the country. He reiterated several times that he had never met any of these women in person, but that his actions constitute "a personal failing" that will no doubt cast his political future into question.

Rep. Anthony Weiner confessed Monday that he was the one responsible for sending a lewd photo of himself to a college student on Twitter but stopped short of resigning from his post a week after first drawing fire for the image.

The website BigGovernment.com posted several pictures that appear to be New York Congressman Anthony Weiner getting intimate and topless on a webcam, and Radar.com has published a series of "sext" messages they claim were sent from Weiner to a woman they identify as "middle-aged and from Nevada."

On Monday Anthony Weiner admitted that he has had "inappropriate online conversations" with about six women over the past three years - including while being married to senior Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Let the Wiener jokes commence.

Tuesday a bill was blocked by the Senate that would have repealed about two billion dollars in tax breaks currently enjoyed by the five biggest oil companies. The majority actually voted in favor of the bill, 52-48, but because it was a procedural vote (a vote on whether to vote on the measure), it required a 60-member majority to proceed.

The voting split along predictable party lines for the most part, though three Democrats — Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, Alaska’s Mark Begich, and Nebraska’s Ben Nelson — voted against it.  Two Republicans voted for the measure: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both from Maine.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in DC yesterday, reasserting his support for gay marriage and sounding much like someone considering an election bid.

He spoke today to nearly seven-thousand George Washington University graduates and their families and friends on the Mall in Washington DC, extolling the virtues of political independence as the key to a bipartisan-bickering-free future.  While his jokes occasionally fell flat (University President Steven Knapp has a sheep farm, "Not that I'm saying President Knapp is full of sheep!") Bloomberg mostly seemed warmly received, even as he launched into inevitable parables about 9/11 and coming together as a nation.