McConnell Stands for Free Speech
By Bradley A. Smith
Perhaps the biggest problem with giving the government power to regulate political speech — “campaign-finance reform” — is that that power has been routinely used to try to silence political opposition.
Over the past seven years, many such regulations have been struck down, on First Amendment grounds, in a series of court decisions. The best known of these are the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Court of Appeals decision in SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission. These decisions have increased freedom of speech across the political spectrum — for example, Citizens United allows both corporations and unions to spend money to support or defeat candidates, something unions took great advantage of in the recent Wisconsin recall election.
SpeechNow.org allows anybody to form an independent expenditure committee (what the press has dubbed “super PACs”) to raise money to advocate for the election or defeat of a candidate. Emily’s List v. Federal Election Commission, another important Court of Appeals case striking down federal regulations, was filed by Emily’s List, the influential liberal, pro-Democrat PAC. Nevertheless, many Democrats have openly worried that these decisions will hurt their party at the polls.
