10-23-2011, 12:02 PM
(10-23-2011, 08:16 AM)FireIceTalon Wrote: Anyone who isn't an individual should be restricted in my opinion, media and unions included. I don't think the founders intended for the 1st Amendment to apply to anyone else but individuals.
The phrase guaranteeing free speech is squeezed directly in between two other, closely related freedoms: Free exercise of religion, and freedom of the press.
Quote:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Neither churches nor newspapers are individuals. Are you saying the framers did not intend for churches to speak as they please, or newspapers to publish free from censorship? It seems obvious to me that they were considering collective speech cases, and intended freedom of speech to apply. They even spell out the freedom to "assemble," surely indicating that being a group does not curtail one's freedoms.
Now, whether campaign finance is genuinely a free speech issue, is another question, and I sit on the other side of that one. But as for speech itself, I think the constitution is pretty clear.
-Jester