...unequal voice: Citizens United V. FEC Jack Balkin once said, “freedom of speech is the paradigmatic liberty through which one participates in democracy in the pluralist conception. It’s constitutional instantiation, the first Amendment, becomes identified with democratic pluralism itself.” On January 21, 2010 in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that "the Government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether.” The court declared that corporations are people and in Justice Robert’s...
Words: 1298 - Pages: 6
...infringes on the First Amendment rights, which is protects the of freedom of speech,...
Words: 770 - Pages: 4
...(Survey). Super PAC’s are controversial because they are a result of two court rulings against the Federal Election Commission by the Supreme Court. Super PAC’s are much like political action committees but cannot coordinate directly with candidates or political parties. They allow labor unions, corporations and different groups to make unlimited contributions to these groups that are not in cahoots with any political parties or candidates. The major controversies of this topic are: the First Amendment, disclosure of contributors, corruption, competiveness of elections, and political advertising. The two Supreme Court cases which lead to the creation of super PAC’s were Citizens United vs. Federal Election Committee and SpeechNow.org vs. Federal Election Committee. These two rulings came in 2010 within months of each other. Mortimer B. Zuckerman in “Money in Politics: A Problem With No Easy Solutions” of U.S. Digital Weekly, illustrates the formation of super PAC’s. In the first case Citizens United vs. FEC found that the government cannot prohibit corporations and unions from spending money to support or oppose candidates. The second ruling in the SpeechNow.org vs. FEC upheld a constitutional of persons’ spending money independently of any candidate or party to pool their resources for a common cause (1+). Former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission and now Chairman of...
Words: 1434 - Pages: 6
...The Board often orders, directors to remove anything it feels offensive. The censorship of films is governed by the Cinematograph Act, 1952. It assigns certification as Universal, Adults, and Parental Guidance to films in India before public exhibition. Film censorship is common today, but the first time a movie went through censorship because of politics and the law was in 1921. Bhakta Vidur was banned in Chennai and Karachi at its release during the imposition of the Rowlatt Act that put restrictions on Indian imports. Today most critical job is of censor board towards violence and sex. It has to control corruption of mind and to top pornographic films. But to the irony of censor board is ‘Internet’ where just by writing a word sex you can go to any porn site whereas censor board has long panel discussion for 3 second kiss scene in a movie. I don’t say to legalize pornography but the government has to realize the importance of freedom of speech and expression. Movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Gandu (‘Arsehole’), The Dirty Picture, Miss Lovely and many more are getting international recognition but at the...
Words: 940 - Pages: 4
...processes, the role as the protector of rights and privileges as identified in the Constitution must be weighed against its role as a regulator of the political process. A primary principle of the First Amendment is to protect and encourage the rights of individuals and organizations to participate in our civic process (Federal Campaign Finance Law). This right to be involved in the political system is an important privilege and should not be taken lightly. Any campaign finance reform must be structured within the framework of the Constitution. Disclosure requirements are observed as means to deter corruption by requiring that contributions made to elected officials and candidates are made public in federal elections. Disclosure allows voters to make up their own minds based on the information that is placed before them. Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis believes, “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants, electric light the most efficient policeman” (Brandeis, 97). Brandeis’ statement laid the groundwork of the Sunlight Foundation, which was founded on the idea that utilizing new technology to facilitate citizens with information concerning Congress, will lead to the reduction of corruption, ensure greater government accountability, and establish public trust. The Sunlight Foundation claims that by, “providing timely online access to information about the Congress and its members...
Words: 1400 - Pages: 6
... Despite its popularity, there is no serious evidence that campaign finance regulation has actually accomplished any of the goals set out for it by its supporters. Efforts to regulate campaign finance have been little short of disastrous. They have distorted the political process, hindered grassroots political involvement, infringed on First Amendment rights, and helped to entrench incumbents in office while doing nothing to address the allegedly corrupting influence of money in politics. The 1974 amendments to the federal election campaign act constituted the first effort to establish a comprehensive, national system of campaign finance regulation. Specifically, the amendments established these limits for federal campaign finance, individual contributions were limited to $1,000 per candidate per election, with primary and general elections counting as separate elections, individuals were limited to $25,000 per calendar year in total contributions to candidates, party committees, and political action committees, PAC’s and party committees were limited to contributing $5,000 per candidate per election. In addition, the 1974 amendments established the presidential financing system of matching funds to candidates for amounts raised in contributions of $250 or less, established overall spending limits for eligibility to receive matching funds, and provided for public funding of major party candidates in the general election for president. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act...
Words: 1270 - Pages: 6
...Greg Westenkirchner November 21, 2004 Mr. Levinson Class B Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 The Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) was signed into law without much fanfare by President George W. Bush on March 27, 2002. President Bush believed that the bill was flawed, but decided to sign the bill anyways. He believed that taking some form of action was better than taking no action at all; even if it were flawed. The signing of the BCRA has resulted in a flurry of lawsuits and angered many people involved in politics. The two primary features of the BCRA are restrictions on party soft money and issue advocacy. First, the BCRA bans the raising of soft money by national parties and federal candidates or officials. It also restricts soft money spending by state parties on federal election activities. The BCRA does allow for soft money use under certain conditions. It allows the use of soft money for specified federal election activities by state and local parties as noted in the BCRA. Second, the BCRA regulates issue advocacy by creating the new term “electioneering communication” in federal election law. Electioneering communication is a political advertisement that refers to an identified federal candidate and is broadcast within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election. The purpose of regulating issue advocacy is to prohibit unions and certain corporations from spending treasury funds for electioneering...
Words: 578 - Pages: 3
...The Fraser standard The Hazelwood standard Faculty free speech Conclusion Introduction Free speech in public schools is important because it allows students and teachers to speak their minds on school grounds, wear jewelry or buttons, wear t-shirts with messages or color their hair a certain way. However, with the protection of the First Amendment that is guaranteed by the United States Constitution, it is sometimes not enough for students and teachers since there are limits to their speech or expression. It is evident that there are issues that have impacted free speech in public schools such as student and teacher free expression, freedom of expression under the First Amendment including the Tinker, Frazer and Hazelwood standard, and faculty free speech; in dealing with these cases it has helped shape future decisions of public school officials. Student Free Speech Student free speech rights have advanced since the twentieth century because previously students had no First Amendment rights. On the other hand, sometimes student’s rights are reduced or eliminated in certain situations. The Supreme Court has also maintained that the First Amendment rights of minors can be restrained in regards to school safety. School officials are also allowed to prevent, “student expression that presents a “material” and “substantial disruption,” (Nappen, 2003, p.2). In addition, there are certain major types of free expression that administrators see as a true threat, material interference...
Words: 1856 - Pages: 8
...The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines democracy as rule of the majority and a government by the people. If this were the case, then the top 1% of the population should not be influencing government decision based on their needs over the majority’s. Background Info: In the 2010 Supreme Court case between Citizens United and the Federal Election Commission, the court ruled in favor of Citizens United, which allowed corporations to have a 1st Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. With a 5-4 choice, the Supreme Court stretched out First Amendment rights to enterprises, to such an extent that companies can now utilize treasury assets to make free uses and to pay for electioneering interchanges regarding government...
Words: 1242 - Pages: 5
...Songwriters have the same freedom of speech as anyone else who is trying to express themselves. Freedom of speech allows citizens to express themselves and state their opinions free of government restrictions. Composers and songwriters therefore have the right to express themselves freely without being at fault for the corruption of young people who come across their work. There is no need to censor music in order to protect children, or else they will spend their lives protected from what really goes on in the world. Song lyrics do not need to be censored in order for them to have value and meaning, and music is how songwriters exercise their right to freedom of speech. Freedom of Speech is one of the most prized rights United States citizens...
Words: 1958 - Pages: 8
...Case 3.2 – Service of Process Has Plaintiff properly served defendant Wal-Mart? No the plaintiff did not properly serve the defendant Wal-Mart. The plaintiff served the statue of limitation 9 days before the 3 years was up. He also served it to the manager that was physically available, but South Dakota has a law that the president, officer, director, or registered agent of a defendant corporation. The plaintiff as well did not properly give the service of process to the right person. Case 3.6 – Summary Judgment Should the court grant Pathmark’s motion for summary judgment? No I don’t think Pathmark established proper grounds for summary judgment. They are questioning the deposition of Toote, in the part where she stated she did not know how long the boxes were stacked there. How long the boxes being stacked is not the issue, it’s more an issue of negligence on Pathmark’s part because the boxes should not be laying around where people are walking. The court, due to not enough grounds of evidence, should not grant Pathmark requesting a summary judgment. Case 4.1 – Supremacy Clause Does the Massachusetts anti-Myanmar statue violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution? Under the Supremacy Clause, this anti-Myanmar act does violate the U.S., because it is going against the “supreme law of the land.” When Massachusetts set forward this, it went against the federal statute, making the state preempted by the federal statute. The states of the US don’t have to right...
Words: 337 - Pages: 2
...Name: Course: Tutor: Date of Submission: Prayer in Public Schools For a long time now, there have been debates on the issue of prayer on public schools. Tracing back the issue of prayer in the public school as presented in various court cases and the issue of prayer from a personal perspective shows the correct argument towards prayers in public school prayers. The first court case on school prayer can be traced in the Engel V. Vitale case that happened way back in 1962, where there was the banning of praying in public school by the Federal Supreme Court. Weiler says that this happened after parents in a public school at New York protested that the voluntary prayer at the school was not in line with their religious belief (Weiler). To spice this up, other religious groups came forward to support the parents on the same issue, which they argued that it was against the amended constitution. After a long consultation with various concerned parties and religious group, a firm confirmation was made that this was unconstitutional. Therefore, the court issued an opinion stating that there were not supposed to be prayers written by the government for recitation in the public schools. To justify this, the court stated the existence of the separation between the state and the church, where it revisited the history of the matter. Besides this, the court argued that a school prayer is a religious activity since it has the nature of a prayer. Therefore, prescribing a prayer for children...
Words: 1036 - Pages: 5
...Adult Entertainment: The Effect it has on Local Politics, Taxes, & Society Lindsey M. Chapman BUS 670: Legal Environment Professor Kim Stock-Foster May 21, 2012 While planning the development and growth of any city, most government officials do not keep the idea of adult entertainment type businesses at the top of their list or in the front of their minds; however almost any and every city of any size will have to encounter this type of business at some point in time. Adult entertainment type businesses come with their own type of issues when it comes to tax laws, business permits, and so forth, but in the past these types of businesses have been able to utilize their First Amendment Rights to defend their style of business, but when these types of businesses are utilizing local tax money to protect and defend their businesses when is enough, enough? It is well known that many people will turn to adult entertainment, not only for entertainment but for work for the simple fact of making a significant amount of money in a very short time; however what kind of impact do these types of businesses have on local governments and societies when the majority of the employees do not pay any taxes on their income? The following paper will describe the effects that adult entertainment businesses have on local governments, the tax laws, and the effects these taxes have on the society of the environment the business is in. Throughout history there have been many...
Words: 2860 - Pages: 12
...can express, which at its core is correct, but when put into the real world, that argument does not hold up. It’s true that you can express your ideas more when you’re funded with 1 million dollars as oppose to 100k but with corporations that generate profits in the billions, how can it not drown out an individual that can only contribute 100 dollars. This brings up Raskin’s point that corporations should not be counted as a “person” on paper we have given the corporations many of the rights of a “person” for economic and financial reason, which is totally fine. But to extrapolate that to allow them to give unlimited amounts of “speech” aka money to a political candidate is ludicrous. It is naïve to think that the distortion concept of corruption is not happening because corporations can’t give directly to a candidate, but rather their campaign. It is very evident that even before the citizen’s united ruling that major corporations are influencing policy and legislation, if that weren’t true, why would corporations be spending billions on lobbying? Obviously if they’re still spending so much money they must be making a profit from it. The citizen’s united decision just opened another way for corporations to influence America politics even more. If we keep going down this road, I agree with Raskin that we...
Words: 438 - Pages: 2
...organization to an suitable audience outside the usual channels of communication regarding illegal and/or immoral behavior in the organization that is acting against public interest. There are some laws in existence that protects whistle-blowers. The first of these is the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which allows federal employees to report waste and corruption in the government without fear of retaliation. In order to receive and take action on complaints of retaliation, the act set up the Merit System Protection Board. The Whistle-Blower Protection Act of 1989 reinforces this protection with the formation of the Office of Special Counsel for going through whistle-blower reports. In both private and public sectors, federal legislation protects whistle-blowers, and some states even give rewards for whistle-blowing. Regarding whistle-blower protection, there are arguments in favor of it as well as arguments against it. The main argument in its favor is that the society can benefit from the revealing of illegal activities, waste, and mismanagement; this can only occur if whistle-blowers can come forward without having to worry about any retaliatory actions. Another argument is that those who work for the government have a First Amendment right to freedom of speech and so should be protected from retaliation. Also, those who work in the private sector have a moral right that requires legal protection. The final argument is that employees have a right to act as their conscience dictates...
Words: 753 - Pages: 4
