Judge tosses Mont. corporate campaign finance ban
By MATT GOURAS
The Associated Press
Monday, October 18, 2010; 5:02 PM
HELENA, Mont. — A Montana judge says the state’s century-old ban on corporate political spending is unconstitutional.
District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock of Helena on Monday tossed out the 1912 Corrupt Practices Act that prohibits corporations from making independent political expenditures.
Sherlock ruled in favor of conservative think-tank Western Tradition Partnership.
That group challenged the law this year after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out parts of a federal law that prohibited corporations and unions from paying for advertisements for or against political candidates.
Attorney General Steve Bullock had argued that the state’s ban is unique and should stand despite the Supreme Court decision. He says Montana’s law was in response to corporate mining barons taking over state politics.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/18/AR2010101804283.html
Western Tradition Partnership Executive Director Donald Ferguson released the following statement Monday following District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock ‘s ruling that Montana’s ban on independent expenditures by corporations violates rights guaranteed by the First Amendment:
“The First Amendment was intended to protect citizens from the government, not to shield politicians from criticism. The court has restored fairness and balance to elections by allowing employers to speak freely about the radical environmentalist candidates and issues that threaten your right to earn a living.”
This law was not one of Congress, for one thing. The freedom of speech under the first amendment is considered a right. People have rights. People have rights to property. Property does not have rights. Corporations are property.
This does not mean corporations, like the LNC, or the RNC or the DNC or any PAC chartered for the purpose of affecting the electoral process cannot speak to the process. That commercial speech is not protected by the first amendment but by the terms of the corporate charter and any regulations pertaining to the exercise of the provisions of that charter.
Rights are what shield people from undue regulation. The corporate charter should do that for corporations. If there is any protection for corporate actions under the US Constitution, it should be under the commerce clause, not the first amendment.
The First Amendment protects every entity, not just human beings. It says, “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of Speech.” It would protect intelligent space aliens if they were here among us. It protects every kind of group, including the Libertarian National Committee, which is a corporation. It protects newspapers, many of which are corporations.
Is government?
This reminds me why I left the Libertarian Party.
Corporations are not people.