The confusion on this issue among seemingly educated persons is
amazing.
The language of the First Amendment is very clear. It is a restriction
on the power of Congress to restrict certain kinds of activities,
specifically, the production and dissemination of communications. The
restriction was not further restricted to the kinds of entities that
might engage in those activities, such as individuals or citizens. As
stated, it applies to the production or dissemination of communications
by anyone or anything, even genetically enhanced animals, androids, or
space aliens.
Corporations are just collections of individuals, who do not lose any
rights in associating with others. They are not (yet) composed of
collections of animals, machines, or space aliens, but when they are,
the same restriction on Congress will apply. "No law" means no law.
If a corporate charter does not authorize donating to election
campaigns, then that is a matter for enforcement by its membership or
by the designated agency of the chartering state, not of Congress.
Undue influence by concentrations of wealth? Wealthy individuals can
exercise such influence as well. There is nothing about corporations as
such that makes them more suspect than individuals might be.
If you don't want concentrations of wealth to unduly influence
elections, then don't use elections to select officials. Use sortition,
which is the only method ever discovered to do that, unless we turn
over governance to machines, in which case I want to be the one who
programs them.
Strictly speaking, the Emerson and succeeding cases that
extended the
First Amendment to the states via the 14th, were not correct. The First
only restricts Congress. However, the Ninth is not limited to Congress,
and
includes the kinds of public action listed in the First. The SC should
have cited the Ninth, not the First, for a cleaner opinion.
-- Jon
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Constitution Society http://constitution.org
2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322 Austin, TX 78757
512/299-5001 jon.roland@constitution.org
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