{"id":41455,"date":"2014-03-18T16:51:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T22:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/18\/money-is-speech-my-friend.html"},"modified":"2014-03-18T16:51:37","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T22:51:37","slug":"money-is-speech-my-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/18\/money-is-speech-my-friend.html","title":{"rendered":"Money is speech, my friend"},"content":{"rendered":"
Or that's the direction that the Supreme Court has increasingly taken over the years, striking down campaign spending and contribution laws based on the idea that, just like funding a knight to fight in the Crusades would net you a plenary indulgence to wipe away your sins, so, too, spending money — however much money you want — is a First Amendment free speech issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The article also makes an interesting observation. The SCOTUS of the current era is unique in being made up entirely of jurists — lawyers and judges. In the past, at least some of the body was made up of respected former legislators and executives — former governors and even presidents. \u00a0That meant both a bit less legalism and judicial-philosophy-gone-wild as well as quite a bit more real-world governing experience — and, in this particular case, understanding of how campaign spending and donating actually works in the real world, vs. in the conceptual world of spending money being an expression of Free Speech.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Isaiah R<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cReally what\u2019s at stake here is whether there\u2019s just a few hundred or a few thousand people who can dominate the entire election process in the U.S.,\u201d warned attorney Adam Lioz, a counsel for the progressive think tank Demos and co-author of the amicus brief filed by groups including the NAACP, the Sierra Club and the American Federation of Teachers. In a Monday interview, Lioz responded to arguments from Mitch McConnell, Antonin Scalia and First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams; discussed why neither side is satisfied with a 1976 precedent; and argued the legitimacy of America\u2019s political process was under threat. A condensed version of our conversation follows."\ufeff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Scalia\u2019s looming fiasco: Obscure new SCOTUS case may be worse than Citizens United<\/a>
\n McCutcheon v. FEC could eradicate donor limits, pose “direct threat” to “the legitimacy of the laws,” expert warns\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or that's the direction that the Supreme Court has increasingly taken over the years, striking down campaign spending and contribution laws based on the idea that, just like funding a knight to fight in the Crusades would net you a plenary indulgence to wipe away your sins, so, too, spending money — however much money … Continue reading “Money is speech, my friend”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23382,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/02\/money-finds-a-way-but-why-make-it-easy.html","url_meta":{"origin":41455,"position":0},"title":"Money finds a way, but why make it easy?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Nov-11 9:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"The cynic in me knows that money always finds a way in the electoral process. Decades of campaign finance reform made that clear. But with the SCOTUS decisions that (a) money = free speech and (b) corporations are people who should have unlimited spending (\"free speech\"), affairs have gotten completely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&gadget=a&resize_h=100&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthinkprogress.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F11%2Fcorporations1-300x245.png","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51703,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/08\/is-there-a-new-chance-to-restrain-campaign-spending.html","url_meta":{"origin":41455,"position":1},"title":"Is there a new chance to restrain campaign spending?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Jul-15 11:17am","format":false,"excerpt":"Nice to think so, but despite an 11-0 vote by the Federal Appeals Court, the only vote that will ultimately count is what SCOTUS eventually rules on further appeal -- and I have no confidence that they have any desire to restrain said spending.The same goes for the other proposals\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45075,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/09\/its-a-horrifyingly-radical-change-to-the-way-things-were-before.html","url_meta":{"origin":41455,"position":2},"title":"It's a horrifyingly radical change … to the way things were before","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Sep-14 10:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The other day I blogged (https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/08\/help-help-im-being-repressed.html) about a silly NRA press release nattering on about the current quixotic effort by Senatorial Dems to pass a constitutional amendment allowing for campaign finance limits, rolling back the clock to before the SCOTUS Citizens United ruling decreed that corporations are people, friend, when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50347,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/05\/easy-money-politics-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":41455,"position":3},"title":"Easy Money (Politics Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-May-15 1:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In case you were concerned that ANY campaign finance laws still existed, don't worry: nobody is likely to enforce them. As far as the GOP members of the Federal Elections Commission are concerned, their main job is to protect \"free speech,\" which means, of course, free spending. F.E.C. Can\u2019t Curb\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30788,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/23\/colorado-ballot-propositions-2012-amendment-65.html","url_meta":{"origin":41455,"position":4},"title":"Colorado Ballot Propositions 2012: Amendment 65","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 23-Oct-12 9:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So far we've had Civil Service reform (weakening) in Amendment S, and Marijuana Legalization in Amendment 64. \u00a0Tonight, the last statewide initiative on the ballot: Amendment 65, the (kinda-sorta) Campaign Finance Reform initiative. So here's the problem: A lot of people agree that excess money from individuals and organizations distorts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/citizens-united_checks-balances-300x237.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":46209,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/03\/if-money-is-speech-its-clear-whos-dominating-the-conversation.html","url_meta":{"origin":41455,"position":5},"title":"If money is speech, it's clear who's dominating the conversation","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 3-Nov-14 8:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Just 42 donors are responsible for a third of all Super PAC contributions this year. All are older and white, and 35 of them are men.Does money determine elections? No, not in every case. But it sure doesn't hurt (as proof of which look at how much is spent and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}