Monday, June 25, 2007

Supremes Expand Right to Purchase Speech


The U.S. Supreme Court struck down aspects of the campaign finance bill intended to put some boundaries around pre-election advertising outside official campaign groups. The end result is fewer restrictions by issue oriented groups, unions and corporations who wish to buy media time to spread their messages which includes candidates they favor. The Bush administration pushed the case to court, a rare happening for this group when legal questions exist.

Now that restrictions have been reduced, what can we expect for 2008, especially given the crap voters were subjected to by offical campaigns in 2006? One expert suggested "suddenly we're going to see in the 2008 elections massive broadcast ads by corporations and other groups that are intended to influence the elections and circumvent the very old restrictions on corporations, labor unions, against directly contributing to campaigns."

What can you do? Cancel cable, use only a cell phone and subscribe to satellite radio. At least that's my plan!

P.S. While the Supremes opened purchased speech it continued to ratchet down on the little man unable to afford a newspaper ad or TV commercial. Student free speech took a hit as the Court ruled against "Bong Hits for Jesus". Does anyone else find it interesting the school has the right to create a system of appropriate communication but Congress doesn't?

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