Jessica Jackson
Citizens United has clearly become the single most divisive first amendment opinion issued by the Roberts Court. What’s most interesting about that case and the other campaign finance reform cases that make up 2/3rds of the free-speech cases that have received cert from the Roberts Court, is that they illustrate a dichotomy within the court. This issue was addressed in the closing plenary at the American Constitution Society’s Tenth Annual Convention this weekend in a panel called Free Speech and the Roberts Court: The First Amendment in the First Five Years.
One of the panelists, Monica Youn, explained that Citizens United is really not a good predictor of what the Court will do in campaign finance cases. She claimed that if you read Citizens United and compare it to what the Court is doing in the union cases where they are upholding laws that are speech restrictive, it is impossible to understand the opinions as a coherent body of law. Additionally, it seems that in the public school and prisoner speech cases the court has chosen to treat the First Amendment right to free speech in a completely different manner, with much more deference to the government.
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