logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Nonprofit Newswire | Opinion on the Campaign Finance Opinion

Rick Cohen
January 25, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
Subscribe via E-Mail Get the newswire delivered to you – free! {source} [[form name=”ccoptin” action=”http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp” target=”_blank” method=”post”]] [[input type=”text” name=”ea” size=”20″ value=”” style=”font-family:Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:10px; border:1px solid #999999;”]] [[input type=”submit” name=”go” value=”GO” class=”submit” style=”font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:10px;”]] [[input type=”hidden” name=”m” value=”1101451017273″]] [[input type=”hidden” name=”p” value=”oi”]] [[/form]] {/source} We don’t share your e-mail with anyone.
Subscribe via RSS Subscribe via RSS
Submit a News Item Submit a News Item

January 23, 2010; Washington Post | This is such an important issue to our democracy we wanted to pass along another story. Here, a Washington Post columnist lays out four flaws in the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case concerning whether “Hillary: The Movie” was an example of a political attack ad or free speech at its best—or worst depending on your point of view. First, she points out that the court could have simply ruled on the merits of the case that was before the justices:  Was “Hillary: The Movie” (to be advertised as available through CU’s “video-on-demand” capability) a form of “electioneering” that was prohibited by the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation?

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

But the Court decided that it had to go beyond that and determine whether McCain-Feingold violated the free speech rights of corporate “persons,” the quaint notion that your local neighborhood multinational corporate behemoth is a person just like you and me. The Court seems to believe, according to Marcus, that McCain-Feingold served to silence corporate persons from speaking out. Come again? There were and still are lots of avenues for well-heeled corporations to impact the electoral process with much more impact—and dollars—than most “persons.” Second, Marcus agrees with us that what justice Stevens called the “conceit” of corporate personhood “does not mandate absolute equivalence” between the electoral protections afforded real people and corporate persons. She asks, if corporations are persons, are they entitled to vote and run for office? We would add that a concern about spending money as the equivalent of exercising freedom of speech. The combination of corporate persons and money means that there is a lot of free speech lurking in corporate coffers just waiting to exercise unfettered First Amendment rights, to the detriment of this nation’s already pathetic electoral process.—Rick Cohen

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: Nonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Social Housing: How a New Generation of Activists Are Reinventing Housing
H. Jacob Carlson and Gianpaolo Baiocchi
Two Young Leaders Address Food Insecurity
Isaiah Thompson
How to Build Movements with Cyclical Patterns in Mind
Dave Algoso, Florencia Guerzovich and Soledad Gattoni
Get That Money: A Conversation with Rhea Wong
Isaiah Thompson and Rhea Wong
Speak of An Angel and You’ll Hear Her Wings
Saphia Suarez
Ecuadorians Fight to Save the Rivers and Forests of the Amazon
Calen Otto

NPQ Webinars

June 14th, 2:00pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Race for Profit

Register Now
June 22nd, 12:30 pm ET

Making Co-CEOs Work

Insights from Leaders Sharing Leadership Successfully

Register Now
July 12th, 2:00 pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Tenant Organizing in Unexpected Places

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.