4 ms·

Citizens United specifically affirmed corporations' First Amendment rights.

• gosub100 1y ago
  I thought that was affirming money was speech?
  • tracker1 1y ago
    Kind of... restricting money/spending is restricting speech/reach.
  • Gormo 1y ago
    No, that ruling was almost exactly the opposite. The FEC tried to argue, based on the "electioneering communication" provisions of the McCain-Feingold act, that expression of opinions that might benefit a candidate was equivalent to a monetary donation to that candidate, so their authority to regulate campaign donations included the power to suppress the publication of certain political speech. Basically, they were arguing that "speech is money". The court ruled against that, and reaffirmed that speech in itself is always protected by the first amendment, regardless of who may benefit from it or what resources were allocated to facilitating it.
    • gosub100 1y ago
      Thank you for the explanation. I'll admit this was intellectual laziness on my part.