Op-ed: Our Fear of the First Amendment
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Much of the press on the recent SCOTUS decision on campaign finance could be categorized as fearful, distressed, disappointed and even visceral. It's a score for Big Business, at a time when this country isn't calling for big anything. But in today's Washington Post, columnist George F. Will takes a different tack, referring to the decision as a "wise" move that overturns a censorship regime whereby "corporations were even forbidden to send political communications to all of their employees."
And to address the alarmists, Will writes it isn't the large, for-profit corporations who will be chomping at the bit to take advantage of the overturn, but rather nonprofit advocacy groups. Consider this example: In 2006 the FEC fined the Sierra Club $28,000.
The club's sin was to distribute pamphlets in Florida contrasting the environmental views of the presidential and senatorial candidates, to the intended advantage of Democrats. FEC censors deemed this an illegal corporate contribution.
