[El Gato]

Apparently, the marketplace of ideas is to be fully open only to defamers, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254 (1964); nude dancers, Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U. S. 560 (1991) (plurality opinion); pornographers, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U. S. 234 (2002); flag burners, United States v. Eichman, 496 U. S. 310 (1990); and cross burners, Virginia v. Black, 538 U. S. ___ (2003).

Sounds like Justice Thomas is as bitter about this as many on this forum. Yours truly included. He certainly gets right to about how crazy the decision is in light of the other fairly recent, decisions of the court.

[tpaine]

Opinion of THOMAS, J.


the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), directly targets and constricts core political speech, the "primary object of First Amendment protection."

Because "the First Amendment has its fullest and most urgent application to speech uttered during a campaign for political office," our duty is to approach these restrictions "with the utmost skepticism" and subject them to the "strictest scrutiny."

In response to this assault on the free exchange of ideas and with only the slightest consideration of the appropriate standard of review or of the Court's traditional role of protecting First Amendment freedoms, the Court has placed its imprimatur on these unprecedented restrictions.

The very "purpose of the First Amendment [is] to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail." Yet today the fundamental principle that "the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market," is cast aside in the purported service of preventing "corruption," or the mere "appearance of corruption."
Apparently, the marketplace of ideas is to be fully open only to defamers, nude dancers, pornographers, flag burners, and cross burners, ---

-280-

Looks to me as if his full opinion was not posted..
Does anyone have it handy?