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    reprint article from 2010

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    Citizens United NYT

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    reprint article from 2010

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    Supreme Court Blocks Ban on Corporate Political Spending - NYT bntp:/wwwwnytimes.com/201001/22/us polities/22scotus ht Lof 4 The New York Eimes reprints ‘This copy i for your personal, noncommercial uso ony. You can order presentaon-eady copes for etibuton {2 your calesgues, cients or custome here or use the "Reprints" ool that appears next say ail, Vist ‘ntwinyrprints.com fr samples and adeitonal information. Order a reprint ofthis rice nove January 21,2010 Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit By ADAM LIPTAK WASHINGTON — Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. The 5-to-4 decision was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy. The ruling represented a sharp doctrinal shift, and it will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted. Though the decision does not directly address them, its logie also applies to the labor unions that are often at political odds with big business, The decision will be felt most immediately in the coming midterm elections, given that it comes just two days after Democrats lost a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and as popular discontent over government bailouts and corporate bonuses continues to boil. President Obama called it “a major vietory 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.” The justices in the majority brushed aside warnings about what might follow from their ruling in favor of a formal but fervent embrace of a broad interpretation of free speech rights. “If the First Amendment has any force," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, which included the four members of the court's conservative wing, “it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” The ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205, overruled two 3/18/15 933 AM Supreme Court Blocks Ban on Corporate Political Spending - NY'T np. www.nytimes.com’ 201010122/uspolitis/22scotus html? r= 2of 4 precedents: Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, a 1990 decision that upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates, and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, a 2003 decision that upheld the part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that restricted campaign spending by corporations and unions. The 2002 law, usually called McCain-Feingold, banned the broadcast, cable or satellite transmission of “electioneering communications” paid for by corporations or labor unions from their general funds in the 30 days before a presidential primary and in the 60 days before the general elections. ‘The law, as narrowed by a 2007 Supreme Court decision, applied to communications “susceptible to no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate.” The five opinions in Thursday's decision ran to more than 180 pages, with Justice Jobn Paul Stevens contributing a passionate 90-page dissent. In sometimes halting fashion, he summarized it for some 20 minutes from the bench on Thursday morning. Joined by the other three members of the court’s liberal wing, Justice Stevens said the majority had committed a grave error in treating corporate speech the same as that of human beings. Eight of the justices did agree that Congress can require corporations to disclose their spending and to run disclaimers with their advertisements, at least in the absence of proof of threats or reprisals. “Disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way,” Justice Kennedy wrote. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented on this point. The majority opinion did not disturb bans on direct contributions to candidates, but the two sides disagreed about whether independent expenditures came close to amounting to the same thing. “The difference between selling a vote and selling access is a matter of degree, not kind,” Justice Stevens wrote. “And selling access is not qualitatively different from giving special preference to those who spent money on one’s behalf.” Justice Kennedy responded that “by definition, an independent expenditure is political speech presented to the electorate that is not coordinated with a candidate.” ‘The case had unlikely origins. It involved a documentary called “Hillary: The Movie,” a ‘90-minute stew of caustic political commentary and advocacy journalism. It was produced by 3/18/1593 AM Supreme Court Blocks Ban on Corporate Political Spending - NYT. tp! 3 of »wwnytimes.com/2010/01/22\uspolities!22scotus.html?_t=. Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit corporation, and was released during the Democratic presidential primaries in 2008. Citizens United lost a suit that year against the Federal Election Commission, and scuttled plans to show the film on a cable video-on-demand service and to broadcast television advertisements for it. But the film was shown in theaters in six cities, and it remains available on DVD and the Internet. The majority cited a score of decisions recognizing the First Amendment rights of corporations, and Justice Stevens acknowledged that “we have long since held that corporations are covered by the First Amendment.” But Justice Stevens defended the restrictions struck down on Thursday as modest and sensible. Even before the decision, he said, corporations could act through their political action committees or outside the specified time windows. ‘The McCain-Feingold law contains an exception for broadcast news reports, commentaries and editorials. But that is, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in a concurrence joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., “simply a matter of legislative grace.” Justice Kennedy's majority opinion said that there was no principled way to distinguish ‘between media corporations and other corporations and that the dissent’s theory would allow Congress to suppress political speech in newspapers, on television news programs, in books and on blogs. Justice Stevens responded that people who invest in media corporations know “that media outlets may seek to influence elections.” He added in a footnote that lawmakers might now want to consider requiring corporations to disclose how they intended to spend shareholders’ money or to put such spending to a shareholder vote. On its central point, Justice Kennedy's majority opinion was joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Thomas and Antonin Scalia. Justice Stevens's dissent was joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. ‘When the case was first argued last March, it seemed a curiosity likely to be decided on narrow grounds. The court could have ruled that Citizens United was not the sort of group to which the McCain-Feingold law was meant to apply, or that the law did not mean to address 90-minute documentaries, or that video-on-demand technologies were not regulated by the law. ‘Thursday's decision rejected those alternatives. 3/18/1593 AM Supreme Court Blocks Ban on Corporate Political Spending - NYT. bup/wwww-nytimes.com/2010101/22/us/politics!22scotus.html?_r= Instead, it addressed the questions it proposed to the parties in June when it set down the case for an unusual second argument in September, those of whether Austin and McConnell should be overruled. The answer, the court ruled Thursday, was yes. “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 Kennedy wrote. “This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.” sold 311815933 AM (Genah Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2003 1 Syllabus NOTE: Wheres is fone, ayllabus (heats) wil be relonsed, St ‘ing de in sonnocn wth this eeas atthe liga Une opinion nd ‘Toe Syintue enaieter no past eft opinion of the Care has be ‘repated by the Hoporter of Dessions far the conmenenen of te eae Ei Umeda Detot Timber © Lamber Co, 4000.9. 31, 87 SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus CITIZENS UNITED v, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA No, 08-205. Argued March 24, 2009—Reargued September 9, 2009— Decided January 21, 2010 AAs amended by §208 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BORA), federal Iaw prohibits corporations and unions from using thoir gonoral treasury funds to mak independent expenditures for speech that is an “electioneering communication’ or for speech that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a candidate. 2 U.S.C. §111D. An clectioneering communication is “any broadeast, eable, or satellite communication” that “refers toa clearly identified candidate for Fodoral office’ and is made within 30 days of a primary election, $434(G)G), and that is “publicly distsibuted,” 11 CFR §100.29(a)@), ‘which in “tho ease of a candidate for nomination for President means” that the communication *[eJan be received by 50,000 or more persons in a State where a primary oloction . is being hold within 30 days,” §100.29(6))Gi). Corporations and unions may establish political action committee (PAC) for express advocaey or electioneer- ing communications purposes. 2 U.S.C. §441b0))2). In MeConnell v. Federal Election Comm'n, 540 U. 8. 98, 208-208, this Court upheld limits on electioncering communications in a facial challenge, relying on the holding in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652, that poltieal speech may be banned based on the speaker's corporate identity. In January 2008, appellant Citizens United, a nonprofit corpora- tion, released a documentary (hereinafter Hiliary) critical of then Senator Hillary Clinton, a candidate for hor party's Presidential nomination. Anticipating that it would make Hilly available on cable television through video-on-demand within 30 day of primary elections, Citizens United produced television ads to run on brondeast 2 CITIZENS UNITED v, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMN Syllabus tand cable television. Concerned about possible civil and criminal penalties for violating §441b, it sought declaratory and injunctive r= lief, arguing that (1) §441b is unconstitutional as applied to Hillary; and @) BCRA’s disclaimer, disclosure, and reporting requirements, BCRA §§201 and 311, were unconstitutional as applied to Hilary and the ads. ‘The District Court denied Citizens United a prelimi- nary injunction and granted appellee Federal Election Commission (PEC) summary judgment, Held: 1. Because the question whether §441b applies to Hillary cannot be resolved on other, narrower grounds without chilling politieal speoch, this Court must consider the continuing effect of the specch suppres- sion upheld in Austin. Pp. 5-20 (6) Citizen United's narrower arguments—that Hillary is not an “clectioncering communication” covered by §441b because it is not “publicly distributed” under 11 CFR §100.2%0)@); that §441b may not be applied to Hillary under Federal Election Comm'n v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc, 651 U.S. 449 (WRTL), which found §441b uncon- stitutional as applied to speech that was not “express advocacy or its fanctional equivalent,” id., at 481 (opinion of Rossers, C.J), doter- mining that @ communication ‘is the functional equivalent of express advocacy only if fit] is susceptible of no wasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against. a specific candidate,” id. at 469170; that §441b should be invalidated as applied to movies shown through video-on-

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