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2 Akron J. Const. L. & Pol'y 1 (2010-2011)

handle is hein.journals/akjopal2 and id is 1 raw text is: CITIZENS UNITED: CORRECT, MODEST, AND OVERDUE Allison R. Hayward I. Introduction....................................1 II. Precedent? What Precedent? .......................2 III. Speech! Speech! ....................... ..........4 IV. Some of My Best Friends are Corporations . .............5 V. Conclusion.................6....... ...........6 1. INTRODUCTION The hyperbole directed at the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC' opinion is exceeded only by the misinformation surrounding it. In this brief essay I hope to raise and rebut the key points typically made to attack the decision, and persuade the reader that, whatever the policy wisdom, the decision itself is a proper application of First Amendment doctrine. Critics of the decision attack it from several fronts. First, they question its departure from what is argued to be long settled precedent.2 Second, they question whether the activity at issue independent expenditures of money in elections, is really speech. Lastly, they complain that the Court has illegitimately extended to corporations constitutional protections that should only apply to people. All of these arguments are weak, unconvincing, and potentially dangerous. * Vice President of Policy, Center for Competitive Politics; Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law (2006-10). 1. 130 S. Ct. 876 (2010). 2. Nan Aron, It is Time To Take Back the Courts, HUFFINGTON POST, Jan. 29, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nan-aron/it-is-time-to-take-back-t b 442050.html; See also President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, Jan. 27, 2010 (chastising the majority for overtum[ing] more than a century of precedent.). 1

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