Fresh off his featured remarks at the John Locke Foundation’s 20th anniversary celebration in Cary, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich uses his latest Human Events column today to discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC:
Citizens United v. FEC is one more piece of evidence that the
model of bureaucratic campaign finance reform — of government
restricting the freedom of Americans to criticize politicians rather
than maximizing our freedom to question our leadership — was wrong.
The Founders understood the importance of the unfettered right of
citizens to complain about their government. They recognized the
danger of politicians controlling or censoring the debate about
themselves. That?s why they wrote in the First Amendment to the
Constitution that ?Congress shall make no law?abridging the freedom of
speech.?These words and this right have been stunningly
perverted by laws like McCain-Feingold, which was explicitly a case of
Congress making a law abridging our freedom of speech — of incumbent
politicians attempting to censor the people?s discussion of whether
they should remain in office.
