Saturday, January 23, 2010

Supreme Court Dumps McCain-Feingold!

The United States Supreme Court just struck-down major portions of the so called "Campaign Reform Bill." Opponents of the bill had argued for a long time that it prevented free speech 30 days prior to an election.

Republican Progressive John McCain co-authored this bill along with Democratic Progressive Barbara Feingold. Ironically, it took the production of the movie "Hillary: The Movie" to bring down the illegal and unconstitutional law. This movie was prevented (disallowed) from being shown during the 2008 primary season because of the McCain-Feingold bill.

Citizens United used this censorship as the basis for their lawsuit. Lower courts said that the film was effectively a 90 minute campaign ad. They said that it was "susceptible of no other interpretation than to inform the electorate that Senator Clinton is unfit for office, that the United States would be a dangerous place in a President Hillary Clinton world, and that viewers should vote against her."

The case went to the Supreme Court in March 2009. It argued that if the movie was produced originally as a book, would the government ban publishing it if it mentioned a candidate for office within the election time frame? This was the beginning of the end to the bill!

This was a STRONG WIN to protect the 1st Amendment. If you love the Constitution you should be happy that this law has been knocked-down. It is a victory for freedom!