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ORIGINAL: Thor
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
It comes down to whether or not you believe that speech is an equal or unequal right. Does more money mean you get more rights to speech? In essence the court has found a right to paid speech. I don’t care if a CEO wants to stand in front of the WH with a bullhorn, but what it comes down to now is that through money individual speech can be suppressed if we continue down this road
Yes there is a slippery slope, but what the courts have in essentially codified a means for the will of the people to be subverted by large corporations.
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf
The decision is interesting. I agree with their premise. The idea that the government decides who and what can speak, and then establishes criminal penalties for improper speech is hard to swallow. The 1st amendment is very clear that this is not one of Congress’ enumerated powers.
