U.S. Supreme Court Affirms First Amendment Rights
The U.S. Supreme Court recently create a surprising and welcome roadblock in the path of those who seek to destroy free speech in the United States. In a narrow victory for freedom, the judges ruled 5-4 that groups of Americans who organize as corporations and labor unions do not lose their rights to free speech recognized by the First Amendment.
The specific case which led to this decision was an unconstitutional prosecution by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) against Citizens United, a citizens action group which had the temerity to criticize Hillary Clinton during her 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination. The form of this criticism was a movie titled “Hillary: The Movie”. The FEC prevented Citizens United from buying airtime to promote the move and thereby represent the views of it’s members and donors.
This late decision by the Supreme Court overturns numerous federal laws and also laws enacted in twenty-four states. One of these laws found to be unconstitutional is the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act — a bi-partisan effort by John McCain and Russ Feingold to strip Americans of their constitutional rights.
This decision by the Supreme Court acts to protect bloggers. Most popular bloggers form corporations for tax purposes and it was therefore illegal for them to criticize any political candidate within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election. Obviously, the entire blogosphere ignored this ridiculous law and the government was afraid to enforce it against us. They did, however, choose to enforce it against Citizens United and in support of Hillary Clinton — and that is what led to the overturning of the law. Citizens United, and every blogger who ignored the law, risked prosecution for federal felony — punishable by up to five years in prison.
After the victory, Citizens United President David Bossie stated “This is a victory for Citizens United, but even more so for the First Amendment rights of all Americans. The fault line on this issue does not split liberals and conservatives or Republicans and Democrats. Instead, it pits entrenched establishment politicians against the very people whom they are elected to serve.”
Barack Obama and Russ Feingold have already announced that they will find new ways to circumvent the Constitution. Feingold stated that he is working on new legislation to accomplish the same restrictions. When this new legislation is passed it will be the law of the land until the Supreme Court overturns it — a process that can take decades. Obama went so far as to state that he would craft a “forceful response to this decision.” Frankly, I don’t think that the American people are in any mood to accept a “forceful” attack on the United States Constitution. Mr. Obama is skating on thin political ice already due to his other impositions on the natural rights of Americans.
