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At a time when expanding government continues to encroach on the people’s rights, it is refreshing to have the Supreme Court check Congressional encroachment on freedom of speech. Here’s an analysis supportive of the SCOTUS decision :
http://volokh.com/2010/01/21/lessened-corporate-first-amendment-rights-and-media-corporations/
[i]”Justice Stevens dissent in Citizens United argues that corporations should have sharply reduced First Amendment rights, at least when it comes to speech about political candidates. The obvious response, which the majority makes at length, is that this would leave the government free to impose similar restraints on newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, and others, since nearly all of them are organized as corporations as well. (Congress has so far exempted most media corporations from these restrictions; but the argument that corporations have reduced First Amendment rights would suggest that these exemptions are just a matter of legislative grace, and that Congress could restrict media corporations if it wanted.) …
Nor is it enough to say that the press gets special protection under the First Amendment. The question still remains who qualifies as the press for full constitutional protection. If the argument is that the speech of corporations doesnt fully qualify as part of the freedom of speech, because it comes from corporations, why should the use of the press by corporations fully qualify as part of the freedom … of the press[/i]
Congress cannot, and should not have the right to legislate who is covered by the bill of rights and who is not covered based on their own fickle perceptions of a group’s contribution to society or a group’s ability to affect their campaign. This is a slippery slope.
