Citizens United v. FEC: Time for a Free Speech for People Amendment?
Jeff Clements American Constitution Society Blog Jan 21 2010Today in a 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court held that the American people are powerless to stop corporations from using corporate funds to influence state and federal elections. Overruling McConnell v. FEC, decided only six years ago and Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Court held that the restrictions on corporate expenditures in elections contained in the federal Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act violated First Amendment protections of free speech. In effect, the majority decision (Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito) equates corporations with people for purposes of free speech and campaign expenditures.
This is an extraordinary ruling unhinged from traditional American understandings of both the First Amendment and corporations. Indeed, Justice John Paul Stevens' dissent calls the majority opinion a "radical departure from what has been settled First Amendment law."
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