{"id":14789,"date":"2012-06-25T15:31:36","date_gmt":"2012-06-25T19:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=14789"},"modified":"2012-06-25T15:34:35","modified_gmt":"2012-06-25T19:34:35","slug":"brevity-is-the-soul-of-sound-jurisprudence-supreme-court-strengthens-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/14789\/brevity-is-the-soul-of-sound-jurisprudence-supreme-court-strengthens-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Brevity Is the Soul of Sound Jurisprudence &#8211; Supreme Court Strengthens Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Somewhat lost amid today&#8217;s Supreme Court ruling on Arizona&#8217;s SB 1070, the Court reinforced First Amendment free speech rights as affirmed in <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.bloomberglaw.com\/public\/document\/Citizens_United_v_Federal_Election_Commission_130_S_Ct_876_175_L_\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 In fact, the Court did so without the need for full review, oral argument and exhaustive written briefing.\u00a0 Demonstrating in this instance that brevity is the soul of sound jurisprudence, the Court in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/11pdf\/11-1179h9j3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><em>American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock<\/em><\/a> overturned a Montana Supreme Court decision favoring a ban on political speech that flatly contradicted <em>Citizens United<\/em>.\u00a0 The single-page majority opinion is notable for its cogency:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A Montana state law provides that a \u201ccorporation may not make . . . an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political committee that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party.\u201d\u00a0 Mont. Code Ann. \u00a713\u201335\u2013227(1) (2011).\u00a0 The Montana Supreme Court rejected petitioners\u2019 claim that this statute violates the First Amendment.\u00a0 2011 MT 328, 363 Mont. 220, 271 P. 3d 1.\u00a0 In <em>Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission<\/em>, this Court struck down a similar federal law, holding that \u201cpolitical speech does not lose First Amendment protection simply because its source is a corporation.\u201d\u00a0 558 U. S. ___, ___ (2010) (slip op., at 26) (internal quotation marks omitted).\u00a0 The question presented in this case is whether the holding of <em>Citizens United<\/em> applies to the Montana state law.\u00a0 There can be no serious doubt that it does.\u00a0 See U. S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2. Montana\u2019s arguments in support of the judgment below either were already rejected in <em>Citizens United<\/em>, or fail to meaningfully distinguish that case.<\/p>\n<p>The petition for certiorari is granted. The judgment of the Supreme Court of Montana is reversed.<\/p>\n<p><em>It is so ordered.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The First Amendment, the Constitution itself and free speech have been vindicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somewhat lost amid today&#8217;s Supreme Court ruling on Arizona&#8217;s SB 1070, the Court reinforced First Amendment free speech rights as affirmed in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.\u00a0 In fact, the Court did so without the need for full review, oral argument and exhaustive written briefing.\u00a0 Demonstrating in this instance that brevity is the soul [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,716,503],"class_list":["post-14789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-citizens-united","tag-first-amendment","tag-free-speech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14789"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14792,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14789\/revisions\/14792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}