Citizens United very much has not "always been the law". Before Citizens United, there was precedent going back about a century. The first amendment does not me

Citizens United very much has not "always been the law". Before Citizens United, there was precedent going back about a century. The first amendment does not mean and never has meant that free speech wins in all cases when balanced against other interests. The government can (and still does!) regulate campaign speech. McCain-Feingold was not out of line with that. But the conservative majority flipped the table on that precedent because they wanted to. Citizens United didn't even ask them to overturn the law. They briefed the case on narrower grounds, and then the court asked them to come back and argue to overturn the law. The facts of the case were this: Citizens United wanted to run ads for its documentary . But it was within the window of time set for increased restrictions on political ads. Citizens United crucially was not a political action committee, but just a non-profit corporation. As such, it could only run the ads by either making a PAC or using money from a segregated fund (you've seen this if you've ever signed up for a union) collected specifically for political activity. Note that the lawsuit was over the ads, not the documentary itself. Before the ruling, Citizens United was allowed to spend money on political activity. They were allowed to spend money on political activity close to an election. They were allowed to spend money, close to an election, to broadcast issue-based political advertisement (e.g., for or against a ballot initiative) on TV. They were allowed to spend money distributing their documentary in any way other than broadcasting it on TV. They could show it in theaters. They could put it on the internet. They could print DVDs and mail them out. They could distribute it to PACs and campaigns for them to spend their own money distributing it, including broadcasting by on TV. They could pay money, close to an election, from a segregated fund, to broadcast their documentary on TV. All they weren't allowed to do was spend money, close to an election, on broadcasting something expressing views for or against a political candidate, on television or radio, to an audience of at least 50,000. The courts argument hinged on the unacceptability of "identity-based" restrictions on speech. But there are such restrictions elsewhere. See you, for example, prisoners, or executive branch employees.they just invented a first amendment principle out of thin air and selectively applied it to corporations. To reach their decision, The court rejected numerous opportunities to rule on narrower grounds. They did no factfinding to determine whether or to what extent the restrictions chilled free speech, substituting congress's research for their own opinions. They gave no opportunity for the government to do their own fact-finding. And they would have if Citizens United hadn't dropped their attempt to overturn the law (until Scotus revived it) while the case was still at the District court. Scotus could have kicked it back down to do that fact-finding, but they had already made up their minds.