JLF’s John Hood weighs in on the illogical fight by the Left to squash the right to speak.

Democrats in Washington want to strip the NAACP, the Sierra Club, the AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood, and other groups of their rights to speak, assemble, and petition government for redress of grievances. Republicans in Washington want to stop the Democrats from doing so.

In its 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rights of corporate entities to engage directly in the political process by conducting independent expenditures to advocate the election or defeat of candidates. Later that same year, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in the Speechnow case that the government cannot prohibit or limit the ability of corporate entities to obtain donations to conduct such independent expenditures.

Ever since, much of the Left has seethed with anger. Liberal groups have called for the impeachment of conservative Supreme Court justices and for amending the U.S. Constitution to prevent corporations from claiming the same First Amendment rights as individuals.

Those who claim to be the “inclusive” ones are the very people who want to shut down the rights of others to speak. Shameful.