Institute For Free Speech

Citizens United: Affirming Government Can’t Ban Speech
January 1, 2018  •  By IFS Staff  •    •  

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is a 2010 Supreme Court decision that restored some of the First Amendment rights of corporations and unions that had been restricted under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. The case was brought by Citizens United, a nonprofit organization that wished to advertise and distribute a documentary film critical of Hillary Clinton in…

Do States with Fewer Campaign Finance Regulations Have More Corruption?
May 24, 2023   •  By Alec Greven   •  , , ,

New research finds that states ranking highly for free political expression are not highly ranked states for corruption. In fact, states that have the ...

Corporate Political Spending and State Tax Policy: Evidence from Citizens United

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August 14, 2022   •  By IFS staff   •  , , ,

Abstract To what extent is U.S. state tax policy affected by corporate political contributions? The 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ...

Issue Analysis No. 12: Did Citizens United Harm Political Participation?
September 20, 2021   •  By Alec Greven   •  , , ,

When the Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. FEC in 2010, many critics argued it would have a devastating impact on democracy. This analysis ...

Assumptions Gone Awry: New Book Casts Further Doubt on “Appearance of Corruption” Legal Standard
July 7, 2021   •  By Alec Greven   •  , , , , , ,

In an insightful new book, The Appearance of Corruption: Testing the Supreme Court’s Assumptions about Campaign Finance Reform, three political scientists examine the Court's ...

Citizens United and the Persistent Myth of Corruption, 11 Years Later
January 21, 2021   •  By Tiffany Donnelly   •  ,

Eleven years ago today, the United States Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The ruling, a major victory for free speech ...

Top 4 Money in Politics Takeaways from the 2020 Election Cycle
December 15, 2020   •  By Nathan Maxwell   •  , , , ,

If money suppresses turnout, it’s apparently quite bad at it – even worse if it purports to buy elections. If 2020 has shown us ...

Without Citizens United, that new Borat movie would be illegal
November 2, 2020   •  By Eric Wang   •  , , ,

Fans of the new Borat sequel should thank the Supreme Court’s much-maligned and misunderstood Citizens United decision. Without that ruling, America would resemble the autocratic regime in Borat’s ...

Highlights of First Amendment-Related Exchanges Between Judge Barrett and Senate Judiciary Committee Members
October 26, 2020   •  By IFS Staff   •  , , , , , , , ,

The Institute for Free Speech reviewed transcripts of Judge Barrett’s answers to questions from members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during days two ...

Has Citizens United Increased Corruption? An Examination of Public Corruption Prosecutions
September 3, 2020   •  By Alec Greven   •  , , ,

Ten years after the Citizens United decision, this report asks if opponents' claims that increased speech through independent expenditures would lead to increased corruption ...

Campaign-Finance Laws Created Candidate Bloomberg
February 24, 2020   •  By Brad Smith   •  , , ,

This piece, co-authored with John R. Lott Jr., originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal on February 24, 2020.    House Democrats held a ...

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