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Court limits free speech
I was shocked and appalled when I learned of the U.S. Supreme Court's complete disregard for our Constitution when it ruled to uphold the ban on campaign ads in the campaign finance reform law.
I have not heard much coverage on this ominous ruling from the media, and I'm concerned that people don't realize what the most powerful judiciary in the country has done.
This law bans any individual, corporation, or political committee from running so-called issue ads about candidates before an election. If I purchased a commercial to criticize a presidential candidate 60 days before the general election, I would be fined and/or thrown in jail. Is this freedom of speech?
Thomas Jefferson believed that the freedom to express thought without hindrance and to criticize political opponents, even if the opposition was the government, was at the very heart of a democracy. James Madison felt that intellectual freedom would perish if people were not allowed "the right of freely examining public characters and measures."
Aren't these five justices who made up the majority in this ruling sworn to uphold the Constitution? I guess if you want your speech to be protected under this court, just be sure it's pornographic.
Rich Clark
http://www.columbian.com/01072004/clark_co/106423.html I guess if you want your speech to be protected under this court, just be sure it's pornographic. Maybe if the NRA and ACLU just lace their ads with nudity, then they'll be OK. Just the sort of absurdity that O'Connor's ridiculous rulings typically bring out. She is a joke. Unfortunately a very bad one.