Re:U.S. Drops California Case Against Apple After Accessing ...
by snowwrestler on Tuesday March 29, 2016 @03:04PM
(#11383978)
If you're interested and opinionated, you should read the decision. It's mostly in plain English and the reasoning can be understood by someone who is not a lawyer. It's not long and can be found with Google, probably as a PDF from the Supreme Court site.
It doesn't really open the door to no-limit campaign financing. It says that the government can't put a limit on how much money a person or group of people (like the "Citizens United" nonprofit--hence the name) can spend to promote their OWN opinions.
There is a difference between 1) giving a political candidate $1 million, and 2) spending $1 million to shoot, print, and promote a documentary movie about a political candidate.
#1 is still illegal. And it's hard to imagine a way to limit #2 without giving someone the power to determine which movie (or website, or podcast) is "legal" and which is "illegal" speech about a candidate.
If we can't speak freely each other about candidates, how can we hope to have a valid political process at all?
It doesn't really open the door to no-limit campaign financing. It says that the government can't put a limit on how much money a person or group of people (like the "Citizens United" nonprofit--hence the name) can spend to promote their OWN opinions.
There is a difference between 1) giving a political candidate $1 million, and 2) spending $1 million to shoot, print, and promote a documentary movie about a political candidate.
#1 is still illegal. And it's hard to imagine a way to limit #2 without giving someone the power to determine which movie (or website, or podcast) is "legal" and which is "illegal" speech about a candidate.
If we can't speak freely each other about candidates, how can we hope to have a valid political process at all?