Have We Lost the First Amendment?
A sharply divided Supreme Court upheld key features of the nation's new law intended to lessen the influence of money in politics, ruling Wednesday that the government may ban unlimited donations to political parties.
Those donations, called "soft money," had become a mainstay of modern political campaigns, used to rally voters to the polls and to pay for sharply worded television ads.
Supporters of the new law said the donations from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals capitalized on a loophole in the existing, Watergate-era campaign money system.
The court also upheld restrictions on political ads in the weeks before an election. The television and radio ads often feature harsh attacks by one politician against another or by groups running commercials against candidates.
Get the rest of this Associated Press article.
Matt's Chat
We, as a people, have been guarenteed the right to free speech. It was so important that the founding fathers made it the FIRST Amendment. I can see this coming down to the ACLU trying to classify Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, G. Gordon Liddy and all the other conservative radio and television shows as political speech that will just have to be shut down and silenced.I have no problem with campaign finance reform. I do have a problem with ripping up the First Amendment and I do believe that is exactly what the Supreme Court did yesterday.
Mark's Remarks
Amen. When people cannot make an ad or a display to call downa candidate on an issue in the 60 days before an election, why bother? I mean, would this law have stopped the hate ads directed against Arnold? Nope. Will it stop the people like Soros who are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars in soft money, or the Harold Ickes? No, it does not. Therefore, all it is is another law that will be circumvented by those bent on manipulating the process, like Soros and Co.
I mean, 60 days and less before an election are when most Americans begin to pay attention. If you cannot have ads there, then there really is no purpose in doing it before. I am all in favor of reform, but taking the right of Americans to speak their minds before an election is freedom homicide, and Justice O'Connor, Ginsberg, Souter, and the other two are the guilty murderers.
