California Conservative

Here’s President Obama’s statement on SCOTUS’s ruling on McCain-Feingold:

With 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. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington, while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates. That’s why I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.

The first indisputable fact is that McCain-Feingold restricted free speech. McCain-Feingold told people, NPOs and special interest groups that they couldn’t advertise against candidates before a primary or a general election. George Will, predictably, has a different take on SCOTUS’s ruling:

The Supreme Court on Thursday restored First Amendment protection to the core speech that it was designed to protect, political speech. There will be no more McCain-Feingold blackout periods before primary and general elections, periods during which political advocacy was restricted, just as public attention was most intense.

The court’s decision will be predictably lamented by people alarmed by the prospect of more political money funding more political speech. The Supreme Court has now said to such people approximately this: The First Amendment does not permit government to decide the “proper” quantity of political speech.

EXACTLY RIGHT, Mr. Will. As a literalist, I’ve always demanded that the First Amendment be interpreted literally. Here’s what the First Amendment says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It doesn’t say that “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech except if it’s speech by corporations and special interest groups, especially if it’s right before a primary or general election.”

Marco Rubio issued a great statement praising the ruling:

The best way to ensure our political system is less reliant on money is not to pass laws which infringe on fundamental rights, but rather to elect leaders who value policy and principles over politics and special interests.

It isn’t surprising to hear Mr. Rubio standing on the right side of this ruling. It didn’t take Mike Pence long to respond to SCOTUS’s ruling with this statement:

Freedom won today in the Supreme Court. Today’s ruling in the Citizens United case takes us one step closer to the Founding Fathers’ vision of free speech, a vision that is cherished by all Americans and one Congress has a responsibility to protect. If the freedom of speech means anything, it means protecting the right of private citizens to voice opposition or support for their elected representatives. The fact that the Court overturned a 20-year precedent speaks volumes about the importance of this issue.

In 2003, the Supreme Court unwisely supported the oppressive restrictions on free speech that were part of the 2002 campaign finance law. At the time, I was honored to stand with Senator Mitch McConnell and various state and national organizations in challenging this historic error in court. Since that time, the Court has taken important steps toward restoring to the American people their First Amendment rights. This decision is a victory on behalf of those who cherish the fundamental freedoms protected by the First Amendment.

Here’s the most compelling part of Anthony Kennedy’s opinion:

“If the First Amendment has any force,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, which included the four members of its conservative wing, “it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.”

TRANSLATION: It doesn’t matter if your intentions are good. If a law is passed that prohibits free speech, then it’s unconstitutional. It’s that simple.

Here’s another part of the ruling that I appreciated:

When government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought [Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority]. “This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.”

Justice Kennedy hasn’t had the same reputation on rulings as Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito. Still, he’s a far cry from Sandra Day-O’Connor. The notion that government would throw its weight around in prosecuting people for exercising their First Amendment rights is appalling. That’s why people shouldn’t let President Obama off the hook for this statement:

We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.

I don’t doubt that President Obama will attempt to wiggle around this ruling. Anyone that nominates Mark Lloyd to a powerful position in the FCC is a person who’d love to silence his critics. If President Obama willfully disobeys this ruling, which I don’t think he’ll do openly, then I’d consider that an impeachable offense both on the grounds that he’s violating the First Amendment and because he’d be thumbing his nose at a Supreme Court ruling.

At minimum, if he ignored the Supreme Court’s ruling, he’d be exposed as a tyrant who didn’t protect the U.S. Constitution, which he swore to do when he took his oath of office.

Technorati Tags: SCOTUS, First Amendment, Roberts Court, Anthony Kennedy, George Will, Mike Pence, Marco Rubio, Republicans, President Obama, Chuck Schumer, Democrats, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, ACLU, Constitution

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 9:17 pm and is filed under 1st Amendment, Author: Gary Gross, Judiciary, McCain, Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.