m that scathingly attacks Hillary Clinton, and the FEC, which said the film amounts to a lengthy campaign attack ad subject to the strictures of federal campaign finance law. Citizens United will argue before the high court that the campaign finance law violates its First Amendment rights.
Elizabeth Wydra, CAC's chief counsel, writes that the "text and history" of the Constitution does not grant corporations the same First Amendment rights as individuals.
Wydra continues:
Accordingly, the idea that government can act to prevent improper corporate influence in elections is not just reflected in more than a century of campaign finance reform, it is woven into the very fabric of our Constitution.
Perhaps even more fundamentally, affording corporations the same right to participate in the political process as individual citizens would elevate corporations far above the place they have occupied in our constitutional system since the Founding. While the text and history of the Constitution show an ever-expanding concern for the rights of individuals to vote and participate in the political process, constitutional text and history do not suggest an intention to treat corporations in the same manner. To the contrary, the Constitution gives federal and state governments broad power to regulate the acts of corporations.
Wydra's full post is here.
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