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Political corruption illustrated; 1896 mural at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

It’s a cliche that  politicians are corrupt, taking money in exchange for bending the law to favor their donors. But is the act of donating money to a politician a form of free speech? Can it — should it — be regulated?

The influx of cash into political races has always been controversial, and attempts to regulate it have always been difficult.  The 2oo2 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain – Feingold bill) was an attempt to limit the influx of cash in federal elections.

But that bill was overturned in the 2010  Citizens United v Federal Election Commission case which, in a very narrow 5-4 decision, said that money equals free speech. According to Brendan Fischer:  Continue reading →

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, defends freedom of speech — even offensive speech — May 16, 2016 at the PEN America Literary Gala, where she received the 2016 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award. (Photo/Video: PEN America).

The idea that even offensive speech must be protected is an important theme in the history and philosophy of communications law worldwide.  John Stuart Mill said in On Liberty:

… the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion isthat it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

We also find this very frequently in opinions of the Supreme Court on First Continue reading →

WHY JOURNALISTS HAVE A DUTY TO PROTECT SOURCES

By Bill Kovarik — 07/06/05

A federal court sent New York Times reporter Judith Miller to jail today. She refused to reveal her source for a leak about the Valerie Plame affair.

“If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press,” she told the court a few minutes before they led her away.

The federal prosecutor, Patrick A. Fitzgerald, said Miller was placing herself above the law and threatened criminal as well as civil contempt charges.

The absurdity of the situation — after all, Miller did not publish the information she supposedly received — is beside the point. And the Bush administration has no doubt forgotten by now just how much flak Miller took for them in the run-up to the Iraq war. Critics of the war wish that she, in particular, had been less guillible. Its a mark of just how alienated Bush is from the press that his administration can no longer distinguish friends from enemies.

Continue reading →