Posted by
Terry Paulson on Friday, January 22, 2010 9:02:38 AM
In overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. The ruling was 5 to 4 with strong dissent from the liberal members of the court.
I have two quick thoughts:
If you allow unions to have their voice heard, then corporations should be given the same rights.
If Washington can tax corporations which don't get to vote, they ought to have the right to influence the people who do.
As to the worry that such campaign ads will have undue influence, Justice Kennedy was quoted in the New York Times as writing, “When government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal
law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what
distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control
thought. This is unlawful. The First Amendment
confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.”
People will know the source of the ads. Whether it is from unions or corporations, they will still have to make their case. Money does not buy elections, as their are many candidates who have been outspent on campaign ads and still won. As has been said, you don't defeat one view by silencing it; you overcome it by more speech. Give me freedom of speech over governments deciding what should be allowed or not any day of the week!
This is a victory for freedom, and it is going to make a difference in the mid-term elections. President Obama and the Democrats have been at war with making a profit and the jobs such profits create. They keep pleading for private economic growth while punishing the very firms that would create it with more regulations and the threat of higher taxes. It's time to let corporations make the case for free enterprise and the American Dream.