One reason public discourse is so vile: We’ve forgotten the 1st Amendment’s meaning
Judges have no special expertise in identifying or balancing social benefits and social losses. . . Their rules turned out to be flawed. One of their flaws is that they pushed down the standards for public discourse.
How “progressive” court decisions promoted the rise of dark money
“Progressive” Supreme Court decisions that led directly or indirectly to the orgy of anonymous spending
With due respect to the Supreme Court, some campaign finance laws are unconstitutional
But Citizens United included a second decision, one rarely mentioned. In this part of the case, the court upheld federal laws requiring contributors to political ads to publicly reveal their names. Unlike the first ruling, the second was a constitutional mistake. Although the court has since reaffirmed its position, it should promptly reconsider.
A Liberal Supreme Court Majority Grants Businesses Bill of Rights Protection
This article was first published on the American Thinker website. Some on the left now argue that only individuals—not businesses or business associations such as corporations—should enjoy First Amendment rights. To be sure, their argument contradicts decisions made, not just by the current centrist Supreme Court, but also by “progressive” Supreme Court majorities throughout the […]
New Study Shows Campaign Disclosure Rules Violate First Amendment
This article was first published at the American Thinker website. Many commentators and politicians have attacked the Supreme Court’s 2010 case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission for holding that citizens do not surrender their First Amendment rights when they organize under state corporation law. The Vermont state legislature has even adopted an application […]
Federal “Campaign Finance” Laws are Mostly Unconstitutional
In a recent posting, I wrote: [I]t is dubious whether the Constitution even gives Congress power to regulate the source and amount of campaign contributions and expenditures. The background and meaning of the Constitution’s “Time, Places and Manner Clause”—which Congress uses to justify such laws—strongly suggests not. The Time, Places and Manner Clause is Article […]
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United Corporate Campaign case Should Be Controversial—But Not for the Reason You Think
If you have any doubt about the ability of the political Left to set the agenda in this country, look at the controversy over the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United corporate campaign finance case. What most people have heard about the case is that it “allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts in federal elections,” a […]
Some Questions for “Progressives” Carping about the Citizens United Campaign Finance Case
The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC has generated a great deal of uninformed, and sometimes hypocritical, whining. In Citizens United, the Supreme Court held that people organized in the corporate form have the same First Amendment rights they enjoy when they organize in other ways. Some opponents of the decision are even […]
