Whether you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, this essay by University of Chicago Law School Professor M. Todd Henderson is must reading:
[I]t is not at all clear that this case will make things worse or that it favors one political party or the other. It is not even clear that it favors things corporate or business over things uncorporate. After all, there are corporations on the side of almost all issues, especially when we remember that the ACLU, NRA, Sierra Club, AARP, Citizens United, and others are corporations too. Are those anti-corporate readers out there afraid of all of them or just some of them? If you like the ACLU and the Sierra Club, but not the NRA and the AARP, and as a consequence want to ban the speech of the former and not the latter, this is the road to totalitarianism. The Supreme Court is adamant that restrictions on speech cannot be based on content. Tolerating the speech of those we disagree with is one of our most sacred core values.
This case is about just this kind of toleration and the threat of unchecked political power. To see this, consider this passage from the Court in Citizens United:
“The law before us is an outright ban, backed by criminal sanctions. Section 441b makes it a felony for all corporations—including nonprofit advocacy corporations—either to expressly advocate the election or defeat of candidates or to broadcast electioneering communications within 30 days of a primary election and 60 days of a general election. Thus, the following acts would all be felonies under §441b: The Sierra Club runs an ad, within the crucial phase of 60 days before the general election, that exhorts the public to disapprove of a Congressman who favors logging in national forests; the National Rifle Association publishes a book urging the public to vote for the challenger because the incumbent U. S. Senator supports a handgun ban; and the American Civil Liberties Union creates a Web site telling the public to vote for a Presidential candidate in light of that candidate’s defense of free speech. These prohibitions are classic examples of censorship.”
Let me reframe the Court’s holding: the government may not ban political documentaries in the 60 days before an election. This is the end of democracy? The government tried to ban speech about government! Imagine a Palin Admistration banning the Michael Moore movie “Dumb as the Average Moose,” before the 2016 presidential election? How would those on the Left react to that decision?
And, here’s the money quote:
In Citizens United, the Court decided that we cannot trust the government to tell us what we should be hearing about our political system. In the view of this corporate law professor, this is a victory for our democracy
How anyone could think otherwise and claim that they support Freedom of Speech is beyond me.
H/T: Cato@Liberty
That is fine as far as you go, but the court exceeded the question put before them, it is one thing to overturn a ban on political advertisements, it is another to declare the corporate person hood grants a corporation the same bill of rights as an individual.
Read the Court’s opinion, it did not do what you claim it did