Would you support this constitutional amendment to counter Citizens United? [View all]

[Nye Bevan]

Insofar as it relates to freedom of speech, the First Amendment to this Constitution shall not apply to speech that

(1) is financed (in whole or in part) by corporations, or other corporate entities; AND
(2) refers to candidates in Federal or State elections; AND
(3) is disseminated within the six month period prior to said Federal or State elections.

This is somewhat more narrowly tailored than most of the other proposed amendments I have seen, which would have nasty side-effects like stripping nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood and LLCs such as Democratic Underground of Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure. This amendment only strips First Amendment protections from corporate-funded speech (so would not affect free speech rights for unions), and only affects speech relating to upcoming elections. One problem is that since newspapers are owned by corporations, this amendment would in theory allow Congress to ban newspaper endorsements of candidates, but making an exception for this would open up a huge loophole where Koch Industries (for example) could start up a "newspaper" for the sole purpose of promoting (or denigrating) election candidates.

10 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes, I would support such an amendment.
	5 (50%)
	No, I would not support such an amendment.
	5 (50%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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