Easterblogg has a negative assessment of the McCain-Feingold Act and the Supreme Court decision this week upholding it.
Meanwhile the Court has created what feels like a very dangerous new limitation on free speech. The majority opinion holds that spending for free speech can be restricted if the spending creates “the appearance of undue influence.” The appearance! Free speech protection may now be overridden if judges feel it appears to offend a very vague sensibility. The bulwark of the First Amendment is the idea that speech you don’t like must be protected; only by granting privilege to all forms of political and artistic expression can society be assured that government censors will not pick and choose the kinds of speech that suit those in power. Now the Supreme Court has declared it fine for Congress to pick and choose among permissible forms of speech, and to do so only on the flighty grounds of the appearance of that which is “undue,” whatever “undue” may mean. This is a major diminution of the First Amendment–and done in the name of exempting members of Congress from criticism!