Schumer, Specter Push to Dismantle First Amendment

October 10, 2007   •  By IFS staff
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ALEXANDRIA, VA – Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have taken the first steps in an effort to dismantle the First Amendment.

The Senators recently sent their colleagues a letter seeking co-sponsors for a bill that would alter the First Amendment in order to allow for restrictions on campaign spending.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld that campaign expenditures are protected by the Constitution.

"It’s unfathomable that at least two U.S. Senators view the First Amendment as an obstacle that needs to be dismantled," said Bradley Smith, Center for Competitive Politics chairman and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.  "It’s frightening that anyone would want to throw out the First Amendment in order to suppress political speech."

The Senators have repeatedly shown hostility toward the Supreme Court’s protections of campaign spending established in Buckley v. Valeo.

The Supreme Court said in Buckley that a "restriction on the amount of money a person or group can spend on political communication during a campaign necessarily reduces the quantity of expression… This is because virtually every means of communicating ideas in today’s mass society requires the expenditure of money."

The Court’s reasoning was subsequently upheld and strengthened by the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Randall v. Sorrell.

In June, Specter called Buckley v. Valeo, the "worst decision of the Supreme Court of the United States since the Dred Scott decision."  The Court declared in Dred Scott that people of African descent could not be citizens of the United States.  Since the Dred Scott decision the Supreme Court has upheld racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, and permitted internment camps during World War II in Korematsu v. United States.

"I can’t believe that Sen. Specter really believes that free political speech is worse than segregation," Smith said. "But it shows how irrational opponents of political speech can become."

Schumer has also been a long time detractor of the First Amendment.

He voted in favor of the speech-suppressing "McCain-Feingold" campaign finance law and favors regulating independent advocacy groups. 

"Schumer is blatantly trying to muzzle opposing points of view," Smith said. "He now appears so intent on silencing political speech that he callously attacks protected political rights."

Smith also noted the irony that both Senators are sponsors of the pending "Free Flow of Information Act," which "encourages the free flow of information between journalists and confidential sources."

"If these two Senators truly cared about the ‘free flow of information’ they would not be trying to limit political speech through spending limits," Smith concluded.

IFS staff

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