Whether in Washington State or in Washington, D.C., legislators regularly enact unconstitutional laws to suppress free speech.
Thankfully, courts often strike these restrictions down. It happened again on September 1, when a federal judge ruled that the Washington State’s limits on contributions made to Ballot Issue Committees during the last 21-day pre-election blitz is unconstitutional.
The plaintiff in the suit, FamilyPAC, said it had been limited in speaking out on Washington Referendum 71 (2009), a citizen-referred ballot measure to veto a state law regarding domestic partnerships. Specifically, FamilyPAC complained that state law had prevented its supporters from collecting funds to make their voices heard.
The judge ruled in their favor based on recent precedent as well as the clear wording of the First Amendment. Indeed, the case is so obvious, you have to ask: On what grounds was the initial regulation even proposed and voted in?
Well, Washington’s legislature, like the U.S. Congress, is filled with politicians who think they know best how to make politics work better. For them. This restriction barely bothers entrenched political interests. They are professionally organized enough to make their spending decisions early, and they like knowing that any last-minute effort by a less sophisticated individual or group will be blocked.
But when the politicians speak about such laws it sounds like they are taking a stand against “big corporations.”
Instead, they take a stand against citizens.
Thank goodness we have the courts!
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “Another Free Speech Advance”
OK. The “thank goodness we have the courts” comment must be taken with a grain of salt.
Lets face it, over the past few decades, our courts have left us down on a plethora of issues.
Its nice they saw this one. However, surely those same courts have seen a number of other issues coming & I sure do wish they had ruled appropriately on them as well.
Not so fast with the praise of the Federal court system. Notwithstanding this case, which was filed to late to be of any good, two different Federal courts just issued obviously incorrect and extremely stupid decisions that also cited the now infamous term of “unconstitutional”. The Pennsylvania ruling on their illegal immigration statute following by an even greater and more absurd ruling regarding the military stance of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”. This particular homosexual judge, claims that the 20+ year old law violates the 5th Amendment. It is evident from even a cursory review of the Constitution, this particular Federal judge has not even read the Constitution, much less qualified to interpret it. I have less faith in the Federal judicial system than I do in Homeland Security.