A while back, a prominent law review asked me to review a book on a topic of interest to me. I readily agreed, on condition that the review be relatively short. When it came time to sit down and read the book, however, I found it extremely difficult to understand; the book was loaded with […]
Archive | 2010
Corporate Rights and Property Rights are Human Rights: Why it’s a Mistake to Conflate a Right with the Means Used to Exercise it
In my last post, I explained why it’s a mistake to deny free speech rights to people organized as corporations on the grounds that corporations aren’t “real people.” It’s true, of course, that a corporation is not a person. But the people who own and operate it are. “Corporate speech” is really just speech by […]
Citizens United and the Mainstream Media
Three thoughts on Citizens United and the mainstream media: 1. The decision better secures the liberty of the mainstream media. Most mainstream media is organized as corporations, and as the Court pointed out the argument for lesser protection for corporate speech would equally apply to speech by media corporations. So far, Congress has exempted the […]
Lessened Corporate First Amendment Rights and Media Corporations
Justice Stevens’ dissent in Citizens United argues that corporations should have sharply reduced First Amendment rights, at least when it comes to speech about political candidates. The obvious response, which the majority makes at length, is that this would leave the government free to impose similar restraints on newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, and others, since nearly […]
People Organized as Corporations are People Too
Others, such as senior Conspirator Eugene Volokh, are much better qualified than I am to comment on today’s important free speech decision striking down restrictions on campaign-related speech by corporations. I want to focus on the common claim that corporations aren’t entitled to free speech rights (and perhaps other constitutional rights) because they aren’t “real […]
Here’s a Good Reason to Allow Internet Access on Airplanes
Maybe a flight attendant or passenger could have looked up what “tefillin” is, and saved the passengers on this flight a lot of inconvenience, and the airline a lot of embarrassment. (A flight was diverted when flight attendants became concerned that a teenager’s Jewish ritual object, tefillin was actually some sort of a bomb). Aside: […]
Wisdom from Jay Leno
“It’s hard to believe President Obama’s now been in office for a year. And you know, it’s incredible. He took something that was in terrible, terrible shape and he brought it back from the brink of disaster: The Republican Party. Thanks to WSJ.com’s Political Diary for the pointer.
The Libertarian Vote
David Kirby and David Boaz have published a new Cato Institute study estimating the size of the “libertarian vote.” They conclude that about 14% of American voters are libertarian in the sense of broadly opposing government regulation in both the economic and social realms. As a libertarian think tank, Cato obviously has a strong interest […]
New York Times Room for Debate Blog, on the Possible Effects of Citizens United
The blog has posted items from several commentators on this, including one from me.
“Every State Is in Play”
Politico has an interesting story on how Democrats are responding to Tuesday’s election results, in which Senator Barbara Boxer is quoted saying that “Every state is now in play.”
The First Appearance of the Word “Blog” in a Supreme Court Opinion
Today, 30-second television ads may be the most effective way to convey a political message. Soon, however, it may be that Internet sources, such as blogs and social networking Web sites, will provide citizens with significant information about political candidates and issues. Yet, §441b would seem to ban a blog post expressly advocating the election […]
The Scope of the Ban at Issue in Citizens United
From the majority opinion: The law before us is an outright ban, backed by criminal sanctions. Section 441b makes it a felony for all corporations — including nonprofit advocacy corporations — either to expressly advocate the election or defeat of candidates or to broadcast electioneering communications within 30 days of a primary election and 60 […]
Citizens United on the Deterrent Effect of Complex Speech Restrictions
From the majority opinion: The First Amendment does not permit laws that force speakers to retain a campaign finance attorney, conduct demographic marketing research, or seek declaratory rulings before discussing the most salient political issues of our day. Prolix laws chill speech for the same reason that vague laws chill speech: People “of common intelligence […]
Citizens United on the Second-Class First Amendment Status of Broadcast TV and Radio?
The Court has long treated over-the-air broadcast TV and radio as less constitutionally protected than newspapers, magazines, books, and (in recent years) cable television and the Internet. That’s why the Fairness Doctrine was unanimously upheld in 1969 (in the Red Lion case), and a similar (though narrower) state law for newspapers was unanimously struck down […]
Judge Goodwin Liu?
The Daily Journal reports that President Obama is “poised” to nominate Professor Goodwin Liu, Associate Dean at the University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prof. Liu is an accomplished scholar with an impressive background. But I also suspect his nomination could […]