{"id":3330,"date":"2010-01-22T10:05:46","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T15:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=3330"},"modified":"2010-01-22T11:42:58","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T16:42:58","slug":"the-white-house-v-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/3330\/the-white-house-v-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"The White House v. Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there were any lingering questions about this Administration\u2019s stance on free speech, all doubt was removed last night when the White House issued this response<\/span><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWith its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right.\u00a0 When did censorship become as popular as organic foods in this country?\u00a0 Mr. President, you also failed to mention that this decision will be a huge boon for unions, major contributors to your campaign and the Democratic Party.\u00a0 Citizens United<\/em> is a victory for both the left and the right, a victory for anyone who is opposed to jailing someone over broadcasting a political position.<\/p>\n

This Administration claims to be \u201cliberal,\u201d yet it also took the position that banning books<\/span><\/a> that contained one line of advocacy was a felony.\u00a0 What would have happened if McCain-Feingold were around in the 18th Century when the Federalist Papers<\/span><\/a> were being printed with small business paper?\u00a0 Locking people up for political speech is as American as burning books or jailing political enemies<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Why stop now, Mr. President?<\/p>\n

The end of the world is still far off in the distance.\u00a0 As former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley A. Smith mentioned today<\/span><\/a>, 28 states already allow corporate and \u201cspecial interest\u201d spending.\u00a0 States like Oregon, Virginia and Utah are hardly known as bastions for corrupt political activity, even though they allow corporations to take a stance when issues are debated in the public circle.<\/p>\n

Harsh critics of Free Speech claim that because corporations don\u2019t vote that they shouldn\u2019t be afforded basic First Amendment protections.\u00a0 So, if the First Amendment doesn\u2019t apply to corporations, perhaps they shouldn\u2019t pay taxes?<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has already held that the Constitution, in most parts, applies to corporate entities.\u00a0 Is the First Amendment inapplicable when the actor grows richer?\u00a0 What about the Takings Clause in the Fifth Amendment?\u00a0 Should corporations and other for-profit entities be denied due process of the law simply because they don\u2019t vote?\u00a0 I\u2019m sure politicians would approve of that but thankfully they haven\u2019t overturned the Fifth Amendment \u2026 yet.<\/p>\n

Lacking voting rights is an argument for this decision, not against it.\u00a0 Corporations and non-profits lack the right to vote and can\u2019t even contribute directly to political parties unless they choose to form expensive political action committees (PAC).\u00a0 Independent expenditures are one of the few ways businesses can influence legislation that has a direct impact on their existence.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s also remember that 99% of corporations in the U.S. aren\u2019t rich or powerful.\u00a0 The language in McCain-Feingold was woefully overbroad and applied to every entity from General Electric to your local florist.<\/p>\n

Americans should be rejoicing because the Administration and most politicians hate this decision.\u00a0 That\u2019s wonderful. Anything that upsets career politicians is normally good for the rest of the country.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then again, Congress should be happy; their enemies are no longer hidden behind the veil of those evil\u00a0527 groups.<\/p>\n

With the blackballing of Fox News, his appointment of Justice Sotomayor, who voted against free speech, and his response to Citizens United<\/em>, President Obama has made clear what many suspected years ago.\u00a0 The President is not a fan of free speech, that is unless he\u2019s breaking campaign promises and drowning out his opponent with over $700 million<\/span><\/a> in union-funded spending.\u00a0 As much as his speech might have been repulsive to some, President Obama had every right to spend money spreading his views.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s not free speech to which the President is opposed; maybe it\u2019s just a little healthy competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there were any lingering questions about this Administration\u2019s stance on free speech, all doubt was removed last night when the White House issued this response: \u201cWith its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,94,84,716,503,14],"class_list":["post-3330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-citizens-united","tag-citizens-united-v-fec","tag-congress","tag-first-amendment","tag-free-speech","tag-president-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3330"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3345,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions\/3345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}