The Recent Supreme Court Opinion on Corporations and Political Speech

Here are a couple of things I have just written on the recent Supreme Court case on whether corporations and unions can engage in political speech.

There's been a lot of absurd reaction to the case--so hopefully the following will provide some common sense on the issues (at least for those who believe in the First Amendment).

1) Op-Ed in Fayetteville Observer

On Jan. 21, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in Citizens United v. FEC that's a major victory for anyone who believes in the First Amendment. The court held that it was unconstitutional for the government to prohibit corporations and unions from expressing their support or opposition to political candidates or to prohibit them from airing campaign ads within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election.

The law was so extreme that the government could have banned books, movies and other communications that contained political messages. The penalty for committing this "horrible" act of engaging in speech included possible jail time. The very notion that speech could be met with criminal sanctions should scare all Americans.

2) Do Corporations Have First Amendment Rights? (Recent JLF Blog Post)

After the Citizens United opinion, individuals opposed to political speech make the absurd argument that corporations aren't people and therefore don't have free speech rights.

John Hood discussed this issue Monday in his Daily Journal column.

Let's take this step by step:

1) Are corporations people? Answer: No

OK, we are all in agreement with that. Now let's turn to the next question.

2) Do corporations have First Amendment rights? Answer: Yes

As a matter of law, the United States Supreme Court has long-held that corporations have First Amendment rights. There's nothing new about this concept.

Here's why corporations have First Amendment rights: Corporations are nothing more than associations of individuals. As an individual, we can express our views, and within association we also can express our views.

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