Free Speech Continues Under Siege

The recent decision by a three judge federal court left open the possibility that Americans may have the right to criticize politicians before an election.

McCain-Feingold,otherwise known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act made that an issue.

Captain's Quarters has a good discussion,

Imagine, if you will, the Founding Fathers who wrote and established this amendment. The young Republic had failed in its first incarnation under the Articles of Confederation and had just created a Constitution that gave far greater powers to the federal government. The Bill of Rights came in reaction to that increase in power, and first and foremost came the protection for speech and religion in order to counter the power of federal officials. Do you suppose for a moment that they intended the federal government to act as an approving agent for political speech -- or do you think they intended free speech to check federal power?

The fact that a sitting jurist could calculate such a reversal of the intent and meaning of the First Amendment should shake Americans to their core, if we hadn't already been inured to the sight of judges arrogating powers to themselves and the bureaucracy. However, it does point out the erosive effect of the BCRA and how the "reformers" would eventually send us into an autocracy where the very act of writing this blog could be construed as illegal.

As does George Will. A Retreat on Rationing Free Speech?

A three-judge federal court recently tugged a thread that may begin the unraveling of the fabric of murky laws and regulations that traduce the First Amendment by suppressing political speech. Divided 2 to 1, the court held -- unremarkably, you might think -- that issue advocacy ads can run during an election campaign, when they matter most. This decision will strike zealous (there is no other kind) advocates of ever-tighter regulation of political speech (campaign finance "reformers") as ominous. Why? Because it partially emancipates millions of Americans who incorporate thousands of groups to advocate their causes, groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association.

I am amazed that no one and no group has run a campaign against what has to be the most egregious violation of freedom that has occurred in my lifetime. That is perhaps as ominous as the passage of the bill itself. But perhaps the dogs that claim to speak for us and would be expected to bark - the MSM - is exempt from the law. In fact, but shutting down much of the opposition, the law has made the press more powerful at the expense of the people.