How Chief Justice John Roberts orchestrated the Citizens United decision
When Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was first argued before the Supreme Court, on March 24, 2009, it seemed like a case of modest importance. The issue before the Justices was a narrow one. The McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law prohibited corporations from running television commercials for or against Presidential candidates for thirty days before primaries. During that period, Citizens United, a nonprofit corporation, had wanted to run a documentary, as a cable video on demand, called Hillary: The Movie, which was critical of Hillary Clinton. The F.E.C. had prohibited the broadcast under McCain-Feingold, and Citizens United had challenged the decision. There did not seem to be a lot riding on the outcome. After all, how many nonprofits wanted to run documentaries about Presidential candidates, using relatively obscure technologies, just before elections?
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., summoned Theodore B. Olson, the lawyer for Citizens United, to the podium. Robertss voice bears a flat-vowelled trace of his origins, in Indiana. Unlike his predecessor, William Rehnquist, Roberts rarely shows irritation or frustration on the bench. A well-mannered Midwesterner, he invariably lets one of his colleagues ask the first questions.
That day, it was David Souter, who was just a few weeks away from announcing his departure from the Court. In keeping with his distaste for Washington, Souter seemed almost to cultivate his New Hampshire accent during his two decades on the Court. In response to Souters questions, Olson made a key point about how he thought the case should be resolved. In his view, the prohibitions in McCain-Feingold applied only to television commercials, not to ninety-minute documentaries. This sort of communication was not something that Congress intended to prohibit, Olson said. This view made the case even more straightforward. Olsons argument indicated that there was no need for the Court to declare any part of the law unconstitutional, or even to address the First Amendment implications of the case. Olson simply sought a judgment that McCain-Feingold did not apply to documentaries shown through video on demand.
The Justices settled into their usual positions. The diminutive Ruth Bader Ginsburg was barely visible above the bench. Stephen Breyer was twitchy, his expressions changing based on whether or not he agreed with the lawyers answers. As ever, Clarence Thomas was silent. (He was in year three of his now six-year streak of not asking questions.)
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/21/120521fa_fact_toobin?currentPage=all
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,349 posts)to exponentially increase the numbers of "disadvantaged persons or classes" from having their voices heard, as if being drowned out by a select few holding national and/or regional size megaphones; that's what television is.
Kennedy often saw First Amendment issues in terms of abstractions. Citizens United, at its core, concerned a law that set aside a brief period of time (shortly before elections) when corporations could not fund political commercials. To Kennedy, this was nothing more than censorship: By taking the right to speak from some and giving it to others, the Government deprives the disadvantaged person or class of the right to use speech to strive to establish worth, standing, and respect for the speakers voice. The Government may not by these means deprive the public of the right and privilege to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy of consideration. The First Amendment protects speech and speaker, and the ideas that flow from each.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/21/120521fa_fact_toobin#ixzz1usAtxuHM
Freedom of speech at its' best allows for the maximum flow of information from all directions, by legalizing the funneling power of corporate supremacists and money to dominate political discourse, the Robert's Court has done more damage to the 1st Amendment's protection of speech for the people than any SC in history.
Thanks for the thread, Galraedia.