Posted on 12/12/2003 1:49:41 PM PST by ImpBill
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:50:39 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
"Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech."
It says a lot about the power of those 10 First Amendment words that it took the Supreme Court 298 pages of legal contortions yesterday to get around them. We'd have all been better off if the Court had simply taken a hint from the Founders and struck down campaign finance reform.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
No, it's not law; it is force. No one should dignify this bilge with the word "law".
Free speech protection disappears
By VALLE SIMMS DUTCHER
Valle Simms Dutcher is general counsel for the Southeastern Legal Foundation.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday undermined one of America's most cherished rights, the right to criticize the government policy and elected officials. Justice Antonin Scalia summed it up when he said, "This is a sad day for freedom of speech."
In its haste to approve congressional authority to regulate political money, the high court gave Congress the power to squelch political debate.
Instead of punishing corrupt politicians, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act frustrates the right of the American voter to support political parties and voice opinions in the public forum. The act criminalizes access by voters to their elected officials and prohibits groups from using television and radio.
Issue advocacy ads on radio and television run by public advocacy groups are banned within 60 days of a general election and within 30 days of a primary election -- effectively silencing millions of Americans who would pool their resources to make their collective voices heard.
The act makes it a felony for an environmental group to broadcast an ad exhorting the public to protest a congressman's impending vote to permit logging in national forests. Not an environmentalist? Simply replace "environmental group" with your favorite issue organization, and you will know what the "new silence" means.
The attack on the First Amendment has just begun. U.S. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and their allies have signaled the intention to implement yet more draconian measures, including the socialization of American politics through mandatory public financing of political campaigns.
Despite the First Amendment mandate that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech," the Supreme Court effectively gave Congress the power to move the nation from a free marketplace of political ideas to a regulated political market in which the terms and conditions of debate and the ability to marshal resources to conduct that debate are dictated by incumbent federal officeholders.
Rather than, "What shall I say about this issue or that political candidate," the act forces us to ask, "What am I permitted to say, and when? Whom can I support, and how?" Once the most protected form of speech, political debate has been reduced to a lesser status than virtual child pornography, tobacco advertising and cross-burning -- all validated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions. It is no longer clear exactly what "protected political speech" is, and that can only damage a free, democratic society.
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Valle Simms Dutcher is general counsel for the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform
This is the very reason why the Founding Generation proposed and ratified the 1st Amendment. Those that voted for, signed or allowed stand this monstrosity have violated their oaths of office and are, IMHO, traitors to the Republic. Where's a tall tree and a long rope when you need one?
I suspect that already it would be unrecognizable to its creators.
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